A well-paid Angus engineer left his victim with a broken nose after a brutal early-morning attack.
The assault was the follow-up to an earlier pub argument involving a friend of Michael Tasker, who then became involved in the street fight as he made his way home.
At Forfar Sheriff Court, Tasker, 22, of St Murdochs Crescent, Arbroath pleaded guilty to assaulting a man by repeatedly punching him and possessing cocaine.
Depute fiscal Hannah Kennedy said police were on routine patrol shortly before 2am on Sunday, July 12 when they came along West Abbey Street in Arbroath and saw Tasker standing astride his victim.
The victim was taken to Ninewells hospital and found to have suffered a broken nose, cuts to his eye and lip and severe swelling above his right eye.
Officers traced Tasker and when he was searched was found to have cocaine, worth around £50.
The accused’s solicitor, Billy Rennie told the court: “The background is that Mr Tasker’s friend had been involved in an earlier incident with the victim or one of his friends.
“A short time and a short distance away from that incident, the accused saw the complainer again, words were exchanged and mutual barging took place.
“By the time the police arrived, Mr Tasker has effectively got the better of the complainer but gone way over the top in terms of any defence of self-defence.”
Mr Rennie said the accused had already suffered consequences as a result of his actions that night, having lost his £45,000-a-year engineering job.
“He has found another job, but is earning around half of what he was before,” said the solicitor.
Sheriff Gregor Murray told Tasker: “You don’t have any court convictions but over the last year you have started to accumulate a lot of stupid matters for irresponsible behaviour.
“Hopefully the changes to your life and the fact that you lost your job will drive this home to you. What you did goes way over the top.”
The sheriff imposed a six-month Community Payback Order including 80 hours of unpaid work.