A BUSINESSMAN who branded a woman "a nigger lover" in her mother's Kidderminster pub has been fined £1,000 with £1,000 costs.

John Dale pushed his partner, Christine Jackson, licensee of The Cooper's Arms in Canterbury Road, during an argument over a missing wallet.

When her daughter, Tracey Richards, intervened, however, by punching him in the face, he made the racist comment referring to her black boyfriend, said Zaheer Afzal, prosecuting at Worcester Crown Court.

Miss Richards was embarrassed and degraded by the name-calling which happened in front of pub customers.

Her children are of mixed race.

Recorder Roger Evans told 50-year-old Dale he had used "odious racist language" during a family dispute.

He said drink had played a part and the defendant had indulged in "foolish drunken violence" since the mid-1980s.

Dale, who runs a lorry firm and a building company and is owed £30,000 by creditors, was warned he must pay the £2,000 in four months or go to jail for a month.

He admitted racially aggravated harassment on Miss Richards and common assault on Mrs Jackson, his partner for six years.

A row blew up at the pub - where Dale was living - on May 2 last year.

When Miss Richards tried to call police from a public phone, Dale ripped it out, said Mr Afzal. He later told officers who arrested him he had called her names out of anger.

Dale had a record of 25 previous offences, including threatening behaviour and assault on police.

Defence counsel Brett Stevenson referred to a letter sent to the court by Miss Richards in which she said her statement to police was "a terrible mistake" and insisted that Dale was not a racist.

Mr Stevenson said his derogatory comment was "normal banter" within the family and was, therefore, not as serious.

He added, however: "He understands now that this sort of language is not acceptable under the law. What he said was very foolish."