A Dundee man has been cleared of assaulting a shopkeeper in a row over a tin of beans.
John Lochhead confronted shopkeeper Naveed Mukhdar at the Key Store on Dunholm Road, Charleston, last December, saying he had been short-changed.
Mr Lochhead was accused of threatening violence towards Mr Mukhdar and assaulting Naseem Mukhdar by punching him and struggling with him on the floor.
But the 50-year-old claimed that the two men had kicked and punched him on the ground after he had complained to them, leaving him “hyperventilating”.
Mr Lochhead’s son previously admitted brandishing a knife and threatening the shopkeepers after being told that his father had been assaulted.
Defence witness Kelly Drummond, 33, told the court she came forward last week after reading a newspaper account of the charges against Mr Lochhead. Miss Drummond told defence agent John Boyle: “I was shocked because it didn’t happen.”
She said Mr Lochhead “wasn’t showing aggression” after approaching the front of the queue and complaining he had been short-changed.
She said: “The shopkeeper came from behind the till and they both jumped on the man and attacked him quite severely. It was quite shocking.”
Mr Lochhead told the trial: “I’m the victim. I’m not a violent person. I’m not like that.”
A jury found Mr Lochhead not guilty of two charges after a two-day trial.
Daryl Lee, 28, Walkers Mill, previously admitted brandishing a knife at Naveed Mukhdar and Naseem Mukhdar and threatening to kill them.