A good Samaritan was beaten and had his car stolen after giving two clubgoers a lift home.

Bruised: Nathan Gilbert

Nathan Gilbert, 22, is nursing a broken nose and badly bruised face and arms after what he said was an unprovoked attack in Acomb in the early hours of Saturday.

Mr Gilbert and a friend met two people at the Ikon & Diva nightclub, York, and he offered to drive them home because he had not been drinking.

When they arrived at the house in Chesney Field there was initially no hint of trouble.

Mr Gilbert a project manager with a plastic injection moulding company, said: "There were four men in there between the ages of 20 and 30.

"My friend talked to them for about 15 minutes and everything seemed fine.

"Then this big bloke, who had left just as we arrived, came back.

"He sat down for about 20 seconds and then got up and shouted at me to give him my wallet.

"He said, 'I'll have that watch off you and give us your car keys,

"I was so convinced he was joking that I just laughed at first.

"Then he started hitting me in the head and eventually he got my wallet off me and picked me up by the shoulders and smashed my head against the wall.

"He carried me out of the house and smashed my head against the wall three or four times in the corridor."

Mr Gilbert's friend intervened and was also attacked by several men.

Eventually the pair of them were taken out on to the street, where the attacks continued and Mr Gilbert's car keys were taken.

The car, an L registration Mazda 626, worth around £4,000, was then taken.

The pair went to a nearby garage where the police were called and they were taken to York District Hospital.

Mr Gilbert said: "I'm disgusted that people could even think about doing something like that.

"There are people who clearly know who they are but are not prepared to tell the police for whatever reason and I urge them to come forward.

"I'd also like to see the police get moving on this."

In the mean time, Mr Gilbert is relying on other forms of transport to do the 80-mile round trip to work from his home outside York and is worried about the impression he will make on clients during a business trip to Switzerland this week.

He said: "I've got a smashed-up face and they're going to think I'm a thug."

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said they were investigating the incident and the car details had been circulated locally and nationally.

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