A MAN who was wrongly accused of scratching a car was hit over the head with a weapon by the driver.

Andrew Musgrave was attacked by heroin addict David Wheatcroft, of Kidderminster, who was high on drugs at the time.

Wheatcroft got frustrated after following a bus into a pedestrian area of Worcester city centre.

He got out of his Ford Fiesta in Broad Street and is thought to have struck out with a car jack, said Abigail Nixon, prosecuting at Worcester Crown Court.

Mr Musgrave was treated in hospital for cuts to his forehead.

Wheatcroft, 29, of Albert Road, Kidderminster, admitted assault causing actual bodily harm on the day he was due to face trial by jury.

Sentencing him to two and a half years jail, Judge Michael Mott said: "This was a very nasty piece of public violence with a weapon on a completely innocent bystander."

He said Wheatcroft had wrongly identified the victim due to his heroin intake.

The judge also ordered him to serve an extra 85 days of an unexpired prison licence after being freed early from a three-year sentence for burglary.

Mr Musgrave and his friend Matthew Jenkins left the CrownGate shopping centre on April 13 last year and were in Broad Street when Wheatcroft pulled up and became violent.

He was arrested 25 minutes later in Hylton Road but the weapon was not found.

He claimed to police he did not use a car jack but landed a punch to protect himself.

Michael Conry, defending, said he was trying to drive out of the pedestrian area when he formed the opinion his car was scratched by a passer-by.

Wheatcroft now accepted he struck Mr Musgrave with an implement.

His mother had died when he was nine and he had used heroin since the age of 14.

He kicked the habit while in jail but succumbed again to heroin when he found that virtually all his friends in Kidderminster were on the drug.