A BURGLAR has been jailed for three years for repeatedly punching a man as he lay in bed.
Inderpal Singh attacked the tenant in his room in a shared house in Goldsmith Street, Mansfield, on June 9.
Singh, a stranger, asked him for a cigarette but he refused as he did not smoke.
He then punched the tenant in the face, Nottingham Crown Court heard.
The man raised his arms and legs to defend himself, but Singh told him to lower them, and continued to punch him and put him in a headlock.
The tenant escaped and called police from a public phone box.
When officers arrived, they found Singh apparently asleep in the man's bed.
Singh was arrested and, in court, pleaded guilty to burglary because he stole the tenant's mobile phone.
He did not plead to assault as the attack, which he accepted, was included in the burglary charge and this was accepted by the Crown.
Judge Michael Stokes, the Recorder of Nottingham, queried this, saying the Crown should have been charged Singh separately over the attack.
Singh had been allowed into the house late at night, said Judge Stokes.
The man he attacked had met him earlier that night in the kitchen, where Singh was helping himself to his cheese.
He told him not to take too much as it had to last him all week, then returned to his room.
"He went back to his room, got into his bed but was then disturbed by you," said the judge.
After the man got back into bed, Singh, 26, of Treswell Court, Mansfield, appeared by his bedside and asked for a cigarette. "He told you he hadn't got any and you stole his mobile phone," said Judge Stokes.
"He was so frightened he left you and went to a call box in order to telephone police."
Singh had an "appalling criminal" record, he said, having committed common assault, grievous bodily harm and robbery.
In mitigation, Avik Mukherjee said it was a strange case in many ways. He said his client did not know why he was in the man's bed as he could not remember.
"He'd been out in Mansfield that night. He wasn't drinking to excess."
