A MAN has claimed he was “set upon” and stolen from before he used a golf club as a weapon during a violent attack in the street.

Ian Abrahams, 49, has admitted possessing an offensive weapon in a public place and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, but claims the victim had attacked him earlier in the day.

He entered pleas at Basildon Crown Court on Friday, where prosecution counsel accepted the man Abrahams had attacked was now remanded to prison awaiting sentencing for his own violent offences, and was handed a suspended sentence.

The incident occurred in Southend on September 26.

Prosecutor Hannah Gladwell told Judge Samantha Leigh: “The defendant was travelling in a vehicle along Southchurch Avenue. He was a passenger.”

At the junction of Stanley Road and Old Southend Road, said Ms Gladwell, CCTV captured Abrahams bolting out of the front passenger door and towards his victim.

“He takes a golf club and proceeds to hit [the victim] with a golf club,” she said. “He’s swinging the golf club towards [the victim].”

After hitting the man several times with the club, she continued, the pair fell to the ground and could be seen “grappling on the floor”.

Abrahams, of Dorset Road in Vauxhall, admitted his actions had caused a cut to his victim’s back.

“He understands what he did was wrong and he is truly remorseful for that,” said defence barrister Benjamin Waller. “This was truly out of character.”

He told the court his client’s only prior convictions were cannabis and alcohol-related, with no history of violence, and he had not been convicted since 2016.

Mr Waller claimed the victim and his associates had “set upon” Abrahams, his partner and his partner’s disabled daughter earlier that evening, attacking Abrahams and stealing from him.

When Abrahams later spotted his assailant and set upon him, said Mr Waller, he had been “attempting to regain his property”.

Sentencing, Judge Leigh said: “I’m prepared to accept there clearly was something that sparked this off because this was out of character for you.”

She sentenced Abrahams to 20 weeks’ custody for the attack and four weeks for possessing the golf club, but suspended the sentence for a year and ordered him to carry out 80 hours of unpaid work.