A hairdresser who was running an illegal business left his girlfriend with a badly split lip after he quizzed her about a previous relationship, a court heard.

The victim needed 10 stitches following the attack by 31-year-old Deako Arsalan, who had not been granted leave to remain in the UK.

The couple had been in a relationship for about four months when an argument started at Arsalan’s flat above his barbers shop in Tonbridge Road, Maidstone.

They had parted briefly and the victim had a relationship with one of Arsalan’s friends.

During the evening in August 2014, both were drinking. Arsalan started asking her about the relationship with his friend and called her insulting names, Maidstone Crown Court was told.

The victim decided to leave but Arsalan followed her into the street and grabbed her handbag, breaking the strap and bruising her arm.

She screamed and wanted to call a cab but Arsalan took her phone and returned to the flat. She did not want to walk home because it was after midnight.

She went back to the flat to try to get her phone. It was then that Arsalan punched her about four times in the face. She fell to the floor, banging her head against a wall.

She was left with scarring which would need cosmetic surgery.

Arsalan denied unlawful wounding and common assault but was convicted by a jury.

Jailing him for 18 months, Recorder David Elvin QC told him: “She sustained a considerable assault from you.”

It was clear, he said, that Arsalan had been running the barbers shop in another name for many years.

“You didn’t have leave to remain and therefore the business you are carrying on is in breach of the law, so it carries relatively small weight with me,” said the judge.

He made a restraining order banning Arsalan from going within 100 metres of the victim's home.

Simon Sandford, defending, said Arsalan, who has brothers in Iraq, and the victim had since “moved on”.

The court heard the victim had not wanted to attend court, but she gave evidence and was believed by the jury.