A man who broke a taxi driver’s wrist after parking in a taxi rank has avoided going immediately to prison.

But Martin Walker now has to pay his victim £1000 compensation for the "extremely unpleasant attack" outside Sainsbury's store in Canterbury.

And a judge told him that £500 has to be paid within 28 days or he will be jailed.

Walker, 36, now living at Forty Acres Road in Canterbury, had admitted attacking cabbie Scott Taylor in November last year.

Prosecutor John Fitzgerald told how Mr Taylor had gone to the store to collect a fare and found Walker’s Mercedes parked in the taxi bay.

The cabbie quipped: “Excuse me mate, the taxi plate has fallen off the back of your cab.”

He said the taxi driver was then called vile words by Walker and was punched in the face as he confronted him, knocking him to the ground.

Walker drove away leaving his victim bleeding on the floor.

Mr Fitzgerald said Mr Taylor remembers little of the incident because of the head wound and was later treated for the wrist injuries and cuts to his face and jaw.

"This was an act of aggression, an extremely unpleasant incident..." - Judge Heather Norton

Walker, who admitted causing grievous bodily harm, claimed he had been taking a phone call from his daughter who had lost a guinea pig.

He told a probation officer how he had reacted badly because he was in a “worried and emotional” state over his daughter’s loss of her pet.

Probation official Linda Jeacock told Canterbury Crown Court that the Sharpak warehouse manager came across as “arrogant and not particularly truthful” during the interview.

After admitting the offence at an earlier hearing, he shouted at the judge “so, I should say goodbye to the children then!” after being told he faced a possible jail sentence.

He was given a 10-month jail sentence suspended for 18 months and ordered to do 240 hours of unpaid work for the community.

Judge Heather Norton told him: “This was an act of aggression, an extremely unpleasant incident.

"This should never have taken place. It was done in public and committed against someone who acts for the public, leaving him unable to work for a period of time.”

She warned Walker that if half of the compensation was not sent within a month, she would call the case back to court and impose the 10-month sentence.