A bottom-smacking prank didn't go down very well with a male parking attendant.
And it led to businessman Gavin Pilkington, 29, who had been on a birthday bash, spending 13 hours in a police cell.
Manchester magistrates heard that victim Peter Kelly was left shocked and sore' by the far from friendly slap'.
Pilkington, of Cemetery Road, Darwen, was sentenced to 120 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay Mr Kelly £100 compensation.
Magistrate James Palmer told him: "Any more high jinks like this on a public servant and you will end up in jail."
Prosecutor Norman Wilcock said Mr Kelly was jeered by a group of eight to 10 men while in the process of putting a ticket on a car.
He was then hit and saw Pilkington running past him and a nearby policeman detained him.
The court heard he was in breach of a conditional discharge imposed last year for assault.
Before leaving the dock Pilkington, who runs a ceiling and partition company, said: "I didn't mean to harm the guy. It was a prank done in drink."
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