A junior football organiser who hobbled into court on crutches avoided a prison sentence after admitting using them as flails to attack police.

Andrew Crawford, who had broken a bone in his foot falling from a wall, pleaded guilty to affray at Harrogate Magistrates Court yesterday. He was fined £100 and ordered to pay £55 costs.

Prosecutor Peter Scott said Crawford, 32, a committee member of Harrogate Railway Athletic Sports and Social Club, had been approached by police near the club on November 11.

Officers had been investigating a moped which was lying on its side in the road when Crawford, a taxi office manager, of Cawthorn Avenue, Harrogate, had been heard shouting and swearing, and had refused repeated requests to calm down.

After Crawford admitted affray his solicitor, Stuart Berry, told the court he feared a prison sentence because only days before the incident he had been put on probation for assault on police. But custody would be "a tragedy" of some proportions for a man who worked to help local youngsters.

He had been leaving the club when he was invited for coffee by his former girlfriend, who lived in Station View. There had been an argument which might have gone unnoticed had police not been in the area.