A HELENSBURGH man has been banned from a bar for five years for smashing a glass tumbler against an employee's head.

Graham Kavanah, of Grant Street, previously pleaded guilty to the attack at The Ashton pub in West Princes Street last February.

The 64-year-old had been with a group of women in the bar on February 21. Around 9pm, heard Dumbarton Sheriff Court last week, the women left and Kavanah approached the bar and started to talk to a female employee.

Depute fiscal Sarah Healing said: "The direction of conversation led to him asking her out on a date.

"She declined and said she thought he had had enough to drink."

But Kavanah persisted in asking and was asked to leave. The employee took away a pint glass of lager from him, but he was still holding a glass from which he was drinking whiskey.

Kavanah was asked to give up the glass but he instead emptied it, then struck the woman to the side of the face.

Ms Healing said: "She retreated to the back and police were called."

When officers arrived, Kavanah was still in the bar, being restrained by other customers.

The worker had a small cut and bruising and swelling near the right eye but didn't require medical treatment.

Defence solicitor Tom Brown said his client was "shocked and disgusted" by his behaviour.

He said: "His family are very surprised about it. Clearly alcohol is a problem. He realises this is a serious matter."

Mr Brown said Kavanah informed him he had stopped drinking four or five weeks ago, just short of a year from the original crime.

Sheriff Maxwell Hendry noted that Kavanah had largely lived as a law abiding citizen.

But he said: "Now you have an assault with a weapon, to hit that lady to the face to her injury.

"This is something that you ought to be deeply, deeply ashamed of and should do everything in your power to make sure is not repeated."

Kavanah was put under social work supervision for 18 months and must stay at home between 7pm and 7am for the next six months.

An exclusion order, requested by the Crown, will bar Kavanah from The Ashton for five years.