A man was punched in the face while trying to help two people who had been involved in a crash, a court heard.

Lucas Richard Samways, of Southwell Street, Portland, assaulted Peter Augustine as he assisted him and his friend at the scene of a collision in Wakeham in February this year.

Samways, 25, admitted assault by beating when he appeared at Weymouth Magistrates Court.

Elizabeth Valera, prosecuting, told magistrates that Mr Augustine was in bed on February 11 when he heard "a long skid and a thud" and went outside to investigate.

Mrs Valera said: "He went around the corner and could see an Audi crashed into a lamppost...when he approached he could see two males were trying to push the car out of the road."

In a statement read to the court, Mr Augustine said: "I tried to ask the two males if they were OK when they replied in a threatening voice saying 'give us a hand to get this off the road'.

"There was a lot of damage, the wheel couldn't move...I kept saying it wouldn't move. The men kept getting more angry with me."

Magistrates heard that Mr Augustine saw a car coming and tried to wave it down, but the car simply swerved to avoid the crashed car. Samways then told Mr Augustine: 'If you're not going to help us you might as well **** off'.

Mrs Valera continued reading the victim's statement, which said: "The first I knew of anything was a searing pain in my cheek, quickly followed by a second in my other cheek. I was hit in a left-right combination of punches."

Mr Augustine was checked over by paramedics at the scene and was seen to have swelling and bruising on his face.

Simon Lacey, mitigating, said: "What's happened here is [Samways had] gone out, he had consumed some alcohol, he wasn't driving.

"The driver ends up crashing the car but the damage is on the passenger side, luckily he isn't injured. He's obviously sorry for what happened, he shouldn't have punched the gentleman like he did.

"He wished he hadn't done something like that as he has tried to move on with that kind of behaviour."

Samways was ordered to pay £150 compensation to Mr Augustine, as well as a victim surcharge of £30 and £360 in fines and costs.