A former soldier who became abusive to bar staff after a drinker passed a note to his girlfriend with his phone number on it was ordered to pay almost £1,000.

Father-of-two James Eltringham, 41, of Jubilee Mill, Batley , was sentenced by District Judge Michael Fanning at Kirklees Magistrates’ Court .

He was convicted at a previous hearing of causing criminal damage to property at the Queens Hotel in Westgate, Heckmondwike , on August 31 and of using threatening behaviour likely to cause harassment.

He was also convicted at a further hearing of assaulting his partner by beating her.

Jill Seddon, prosecuting, said trouble flared after the defendant became agitated following an incident involving his partner and pushed her in the upper chest.

Staff had intervened and Eltringham began swearing and smashing glasses. She said he shouted: “What a set of .... I will kill you all.”

In mitigation, Carl Kingsley, said the couple were still together. On the day of the trouble the defendant, who was a regular visitor to the pub, had been playing poker when a man “struck up a conversation with his partner regarding her perfume.

“He said she was fortunate that she had a boyfriend who could go through duty free and buy it for her.

“He passed his phone number to the defendant’s girlfriend and was laughing and giggling with bar staff. She was upset and couldn’t understand it. It was a deliberate provocation.

“He knocked over glasses and pushed her but he doesn’t accept that he threatened to kill them.”

He said the defendant, a former sergeant, who now works off-shore on rigs and wind farms, had previously been involved in a court martial at Catterick when he threw two punches at another sergeant who provoked him with remarks about one of his sons suffering Asperger’s Syndrome.

Mr Kingsley said: “He was an ex-soldier at the time it was dealt with.

“During the course of his service he spent time in Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and Bosnia. He left with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.”

The district judge fined him £800 as well as costs and a criminal surcharge.

He said: “Your loss of temper has cost you £965, payable within three months. You allowed yourself to be provoked and reacted in an inappropriate way.

“You have some offences of violence on that record. You have been trained to harm.”

No compensation was awarded and he was told not to attempt to enter the Queens Hotel for a period of 12 months.