A businessman has been branded a “drunken hooligan” by a judge after headbutting a pubgoer who accidentally spilt a drink on him.

Family man Meenesh Patel launched the vicious assault on Croydon Guardian assistant editor Matthew Knowles during a busy evening at the Alexandra pub in Wimbledon last year.

Sentencing, Judge Michael Hopmeier told Patel, from Fitzjames Road, Croydon, he was lucky not to be sent to jail as he handed down a 20-week suspended sentence at Kingston Crown Court on November 15.

He said: “Your conduct was akin to the act of a hooligan, not the act of a 56-year-old family man, a businessman earning a substantial income.

“You should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself.

“In my judgement persons who frequent public houses are entitled to expect that they are not going to be headbutted by another customer simply because they may have pushed them.

“You are very fortunate that you are not going to prison today.”

Prosecutor Richard Germain told the court Patel had become irate after Mr Knowles inadvertently spilled lager on him during a busy night at the Alexandra Pub, Wimbledon, at the height of the 2009 tennis championships.

He said despite an apology, Patel followed his victim into a quieter part of the pub shouting ‘you don’t do that to me’.

When Mr Knowles pushed the enraged Patel away he reacted by headbutting him above the left eye - a wound which needed three stitches.

Patel, who earns more than £80,000-a-year, launched another string of verbal abuse before leaving the pub, and claimed he had acted in self defence when police tracked him down.

Sandesh Singh, defending, said the headbutt had been an “over reaction” to the push.

The court heard Patel had three previous court appearances, most recently for battery in 2005.

He was sentenced to 20-weeks imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work.

Judge Hopmeier also ordered Patel to pay £750 compensation to Mr Knowles and £1,100 court costs, which he described as “a drop in the ocean” of the total cost of the case.

He now faces being barred from every pub in Wimbledon under the Pubwatch scheme.