A SINGLE punch has cost a soldier £4,000.

Thomas Wike was told by a judge he had behaved as if he was in combat the night he punched a man in the face in Colchester’s High Street.

A court heard how Aaron Page was outside the George Hotel on November 24 last year and got involved in a row.

Wike appeared on the scene and punched him for no reason before walking off.

Jamie Sawyer, prosecuting, told the court: "It was an unprovoked attack which left Mr Page with bruising and a cut to his mouth needing ten stitches."

Wike, 21, a private in the Colchester Garrison-based Parachute Regiment, had been facing a trial at Chelmsford Crown Court on an actual bodily harm charge but changed his plea to guilty.

He was fined £1,500 and told to pay Mr Page £1,000 compenstation and £1,500 costs.

Recorder Ian Evans told him: "It seems to me you conducted yourself in civilian life as if you were in combat and that is highly unacceptable.”

Sasha Bailey, mitigating, said Wike, from Nottingham, was a valued member of the regiment serving in a mortar platoon.