Scottish BRIT Award winner Finley Quaye has been convicted of punching a bar manager during a drunken unprovoked assault.
Quaye, of Earls Court in London, admitted a single charge of assault when he appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court earlier today.
Assault is an offence under section 39 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988. It is a summary offence with a maximum penalty of 26 weeks custody, an unlimited fine, or both.
The 45-year-old musician had been performing at a bar in South Kensington, London and drinking throughout the day before he turned on staff in the early hours of 8th September 2019.
The court heard that Quaye had asked bar manager Robert Jenei to search for a woman's handbag.
But when the staff member returned the singer was "visibly angry", according to prosecutor Malachy Pakenham.
"The defendant was seen being verbally abusive and threatening towards the victim and security staff at a licensed premises, saying he was going to punch them in the face," Mr Pakenham said.
"The defendant then punched the victim in the face."
Mr Pakenham described how Quaye left the premises, kicked out at a BMW car belonging to one of the security staff and shouted "I will stab you lot in the kidney; I will stab you in the windpipe."
Shahnaz Sargent, mitigating, said: "Mr Quaye accepts that he has got an alcohol problem. He had been drinking all day. He has performed there on several occasions and is in fact very ashamed of his behaviour. He accepts that he was out of order."
Magistrates adjourned sentencing and ordered a pre-sentence report.
Quaye was granted conditional bail until he next appears at the same court on 14th October 2019.
The singer is no stranger to the court system. In April 2012 he was convicted of a racially aggravated assault in Edinburgh. In that incident a drunken Quaye spat in a woman's face before punching it.
In November 2016 he was convicted of another assault in London. In that incident he turned up on the doorstep of a terminally ill friend and headbutted him.
Quaye received high level community orders for both of those offences.
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