TWO men who threatened pub stuff and customers after they were refused a buffet carvery have narrowly avoided a prison sentence.

Just two days after pubs were able to reopen following the first Covid lockdown, on July 6, 2020, Daniel Deans and Connor Jarvie visited the Dragonfly, in Basingstoke, where Covid restrictions had been put in place.

They ordered a plate of food and there was a “disagreement that they could not go to the carvery and help themselves”, Winchester Crown Court was told on Thursday.

Deans and Jarvie made an inappropriate comment to a female member of staff and were staggering and swaying - at one point Jarvie fell off his chair.

Minutes later Deans, of Vyne Road, Basingstoke, attempted to leave out the entrance only door. He was asked not to by an employee, but the 26-year-old ignored him.

Naomi Perry, prosecuting, said: “Mr (Eoughn) Marshall, the assistant manager, informed Mr Jarvie that Deans wouldn’t be able to re-enter the public house and Mr Jarvie, he observed his condition, would have to leave as well. The matters then went out of hand.”

Jarvie attempted to leave the pub, in Carpenter's Down, with a pint glass in his hand. Mr Marshall took it from him, however Jarvie grabbed it and “hit the right side of Mr Marshall’s head with the glass”, then throwing it towards him but missing.

A pub-goer grabbed Jarvie, 27 and of Dorset Crescent, Basingstoke, to block him from going out the entrance-only door. Jarvie then punched another customer, Kevin Batty, in the head, who was helping.

“The two men went out into the car park. They came back, they were shouting and making threats,” Ms Perry said.

“What happened is Mr Jarvie picked up slate stones from outside the pub that was in a play area and he started throwing these through the front door. He is clearly aiming them and throwing them at people inside.”

The pair picked up wooden bollards, Jarvie throwing his through the door of the pub and Deans threatened Mr Batty, who was later spat at by one of the defendants.

In mitigation, Stephen Cooke said that Deans expresses “his apology and regret for his behaviour, that when sober he is now distraught in seeing how appalling his loutish behaviour was”.

Mr Cooke said that when drunk Deans gets into trouble “in particular gets into trouble with his co-defendant. They both recognise that they are not good together. He recognises that he needs to cease socialising with this co-defendant, he also recognises that he needs to cease drinking to excess”.

Representing Jarvie, Adrienne Knight, in mitigation, said: “There was without a doubt manhandling that day, which never should have taken place, when he was trying to leave, being dragged back into the public house was really what set him off when he was in that drunken state.”

The court was told that if Jarvie was jailed he would lose everything as “he has actually got stability at the moment”.

Deans and Jarvie pleaded guilty to affray at an earlier hearing, Jarvie also admitted to assaulting Mr Marshall and Mr Batty.

Mr Recorder Newton-Price QC handed them a 24-month community order in which Jarvie must complete 160 hours of unpaid work and Deans 120 hours. They must also pay £430 court costs and complete 30 rehabilitation days. Jarvie must pay £200 compensation to each of his victims.

The friends have been banned from the Dragonfly for two years.