THROWING a punch at a policewoman cost Ian John Sabel £283 when he appeared before Kidderminster magistrates.

The officer believed he had been fighting in the street with a girlfriend after they left a nightclub, said prosecutor Owen Beale.

She intervened and had to dodge a blow aimed at her.

Sabel, 30, of Sutton Road, Kidderminster, was fined £200, with £83 costs, when he admitted a Public Order Act offence of causing fear of violence.

The police had been wrong in thinking the couple were fighting, said Sabel's solicitor, Abigail Kingston.

They had been discussing an earlier incident in which he had been ejected from the Time club in Blackwell Street.