TWO takeaway staff who set about a customer with metal poles have received suspended prison sentences.

Neither Zeynel Kala, nor Taj Uzbek will pay any compensation to the victim because of his drunken behaviour in and outside their restaurant, York Crown Court heard.

It was the second time Kala had been violent towards a drunken and badly behaved customer while working in a takeaway.

In 2004, York Crown Court heard how he and two of his brothers,  Abidin Kala, who was then 25, and Baki Kala, who was then 35, armed themselves with a metal bar and a knife and attacked two customers when they were working at the York Castle takeaway in Blossom Street, York. On that occasion, one of the victims suffered a life-threatening injury and was left with brain damage.

Reginald Bosomworth, prosecuting, told the same court Kala and Uzbek were working at Bambinos in Kings Road, Harrogate at 4am on April 26 this year when a customer punched Kala. He showed CCTV of the victim’s behaviour outside and inside the takeaway.

The CCTV also showed the drinker hanging around outside the restaurant and apparently "looking for trouble", Uzkek fetching a pole from inside the serving area of the takeaway and both he and Kala coming out armed with metal poles and attacking him. Mr Bosomworth said the victim suffered minor injuries.

Kala, 41, of Haxby Road, York, and Uzbek, 40, of Kings Road, Harrogate, each pleaded guilty to wounding and carrying a weapon in public.

The Recorder of York, Judge Paul Batty QC said: “Whilst of course you cannot, and the law doesn’t permit you to, arm yourself with weapons and go on the offensive, the fact of the matter is each of you was subjected to very considerable provocation.

“I am quite satisfied compensation would be wholly inappropriate. The way he behaved that night, he is certainly not going to by the means of this court receive a single penny because he doesn’t deserve it.”

He gave Kala a 16-month prison sentence, suspended for two years on condition he does 120 hours’ unpaid work, and Uzbek an eight-month prison sentence suspended for two years on condition he does 80 hours’ unpaid work.

Kala’s solicitor Keith Allen said he had lost his job at Bambinos at Harrogate over the attack. He had been in the country for 11 years since he arrived as an asylum seeker and been working for the restaurant for one and a half to two months.

Uzbek’s barrister George Hazel-Owram said he was a hard-working man who still worked at the restaurant.