A 25-year-old man involved in a street fight on Christmas Eve two years ago has been sentenced to five months in prison, suspended for 12 months.

Terry Beckett, of Boho Road, Drumboy, Springfield, appeared at Fermanagh Court last June and admitted being disorderly at Water Street in Enniskillen on December 24, 2012. He also admitted that on the same occasion he damaged a restaurant advertising sign belonging to Kamal Mahal and assaulted a member of staff in the nearby Liquid World off-licence. Sentencing had been deferred for a year with the warning that if he committed another offence he would be jailed for five months.

When Beckett appeared back before the court on Monday the five-month sentence was suspended for 12 months because he had “honoured the deferral” and not re-offended.

He was also ordered to pay the restaurant owner £150 compensation for the damage to the sign.

Outlining the background to the case, a prosecutor explained that on Christmas Eve 2012 police were called to an on-going fight in Water Street. They arrived to find Beckett fighting with another man, and a woman trying to separate them. The officers spoke to the owner of a nearby restaurant who said Beckett had lifted a sign from in front of his premises and thrown it across the road. The officers were also told that Beckett had assaulted a member of staff in Liquid World, pulling him by the shirt and asked him to step outside for a fight.

Defence solicitor Gary Smyth said it was Christmas Eve and Beckett and the people he was with had been drinking heavily.

The solicitor told the court Beckett has health issues and was recently released from prison after the Public Prosecution Service decided not to proceed with another case against him. He is “trying to re-establish himself in the community again”.