A father-of-two who stole a pizza and three bottles of beer from a stranger who refused to fight him has been jailed for five months.

The victim of the attack went into a takeaway in Queensway, Southampton and when he left he was approached by Benjamin John Miles-Worsford and another unknown man.

Prosecuting, Natalie Angel told Southampton magistrates how the defendant, who is a crack cocaine and heroin addict, asked the man if he wanted to go somewhere to fight where there was no CCTV in operation.

Miles-Worsford, from The Compass, Southampton, continued to follow the man before he took off his coat and started to square up to him in a boxing stance.

The court heard the victim then put his bag, which contained a pizza and three beers, on the ground in case he needed to defend himself.

Miss Angel said Miles-Worsford, 30, tried to punch the man two or three times but he avoided them and backed away before going to pick up his food. The unknown man accompanying Miles-Worsford, then picked up the bag and said "Mine now".

The defendant then threw another punch which the victim narrowly dodged.

Deciding it was not worth continuing, the victim decided to walk back to the takeaway shop to safety.

Defending, Julie Macey said Miles-Worsford’s baby daughter had died six months ago and that his father died at the start of this year after a sudden bout of illness.

Ms Macey told the bench that the defendant was asked to make the decision of whether to turn his life-support off.

She added that as a result of everything he had been going through, he had turned to alcohol and had no recollection of what happened on the day.

Ms Macey said on the day, Miles-Worsford had drunk quite a bit on top of taking Valium. She added he was horrified by what he had done and wanted to write a letter to the victim to say sorry and tell him how remorseful he was for putting him through what he did.

Magistrates told Miles-Worsford he was in breach of a four-month suspended sentence which they activated on Tuesday before sentencing him for assault and theft. He was also ordered to pay £113 in compensation.