A repeat offender is back behind bars after attacking a reveller heading home from a night out.

Bryan Chubb, 39, who has a lengthy criminal record, was late to his sentencing hearing at Swindon Crown Court on Thursday – stumbling through the front door of the court several minutes late.

And he ended up leaving the dock through the back door after a judge jailed him for 18 months for assault causing actual bodily harm, theft from the person, shoplifting and fraudulently using a stolen bank card.

Prosecutor Susan Cavender earlier told the court Chubb’s victim had been walking home in the early hours of August 6, 2018, after a night spent drinking with friends.

He walked past Chubb’s girlfriend, Nina Austin, near the Moonrakers pub. She appeared to be upset, saying she’d argued with her partner, and the man said she could walk with him.

She asked him for a roll-up cigarette and, not concentrating where he was going, found all of a sudden his mind went blank. When he came too he was on the floor being attacked by two men.

After they left he realised his wallet, containing bank cards and his driving licence, had been stolen along with his house keys.

However, his phone had not been taken and he was able to call police. He was taken to the hospital having suffered bruising to his face, black eyes and a cut lip.

It emerged his bank cards had been used to buy more than £112-worth of goods from Penhill service station by Chubb and Austin later that evening, while the latter used the cards elsewhere.

The couple also stole two bottles of Chapel Down Brut Champagne and sandwiches from the garage.

Chubb, of Imber Walk, Penhill, pleaded guilty to ABH, theft from the person, theft and fraud by false representation. The case had started as an allegation of robbery, although the Crown Prosecution Service accepted pleas to the lesser charges earlier in the summer.

Mary Cowe, defending, apologised for her client’s tardiness saying his bus had not arrived.

She asked the judge to consider suspending any sentence of imprisonment. Chubb’s leg, which he had injured in a crash several years before, was finally beginning to heal. He had managed to stay away from old associates during lockdown. There had been delays in the case coming to court.

Austin did not attend the hearing. Her barrister, Alistair Haggerty, said her partner had attended court earlier in the day to say she had gone to the doctor over breathing difficulties. The judge issued a warrant for her arrest, although she was to be bailed by the police if she showed she’d sought medical help.