A designated official has been given a 12-month conditional discharge after admitting disorderly behaviour on licensed premises.

Denis Joseph Staunton was on a work night out when he was involved in an incident at Jaks, which is not the bar he works at.

Magistrates also ordered the 53-year-old to pay £125 prosecution costs.

Prosecuting advocate Sara-Jayne Dodge told the court that the defendant was at Jaks when an American man approached him and told him that a drug deal had gone wrong.

He claimed that he’d given a man £100 but had not received anything in return.

Staunton spoke to the alleged dealer, and the two ended up with their heads pressed together.

Jaks staff asked Staunton to leave, which he did, but he then tried to grab the other male.

During an interview, Staunton handed in a prepared statement, saying the dealer had gotten in his face when he challenged him, and he thought he was going to put something in his face, as he had something in his hand.

Staunton said he hadn’t tried to force his way back into the pub, but the dealer had followed him outside and shouted at him.

He said that, with hindsight, he shouldn’t have gotten involved.

Defence advocate Paul Rodgers said that his client had an enormous amount of mitigation, and asked magistrates to deal with the incident by way of a conditional discharge.

Mr Rodgers said that Staunton had proudly served licensed premises for in excess of 20 years.

The advocate said that he had been initially bailed for consideration of a caution, but that had then been refused.

Mr Rodgers said that another significant mitigating factor was that the owner of Jaks had stated that if he'd been alerted to the incident, the police wouldn’t have been called.