A WELL-KNOWN villager has had to resign from the parish council after he was convicted of assault and was handed a suspended six-month prison sentence.

Gerry Tull, 69, of Main Road, Owslebury, had admitted attacking Alistair Baker.

As the sentence imposed at Basingstoke Magistrates Court was more than three months Mr Tull must leave the council where he was vice-chairman.

He declined to discuss the matter except to say: "I'm automatically barred from the council. I think that will be the village's loss not mine."

On the parish council he was responsible for rights of way, tree warden work, countering fly-tipping, travellers and the play area.

The Daily Echo contacted Owslebury Parish Council and the chairman John Chapman but they were unavailable for comment.

Mr Tull has a track record of aggressive behaviour.

In 2012 he was convicted of threatening behaviour at a meeting, pushing tables at a parish council, causing a projector to crash to the floor, magistrates heard.

He was given a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £500 costs.

In 2008 a court heard he threatened to blow his bank manager's head off with a shotgun.

He sent a fax to Lloyds TSB's Winchester branch containing the warning leading to armed police swooping on his home and arresting him on suspicion of making threats to kill.

Mr Tull told the court that he exposed banking flaws in the late 1990s by applying for a credit card with another firm in the name of Rocky, his now-deceased Jack Russell. It proved successful, and Mr Tull kept the dog's card - which has a £4,000 limit - as a souvenir.

In 2009 Mr Baker, of Owslebury, then aged 42, was awarded £170,706 by an employment tribunal after he was unfairly dismissed from a company headed up by former Saints chairman Michael Wilde.

Mr Baker’s £400,000-a-year salary was stopped for three months while he was on gardening leave from Merlion Group Ltd, where he was the chief executive, an employment tribunal heard.

In 2010 Merlion was wound up after an action launched by the taxman.