A SWANSEA man has narrowly avoided losing his liberty for a vicious assault on a city taxi driver.

Dominic Cambriani gouged the cabbie's eyes then punched him and banged his head on the ground, a court was told.

The attack on victim Jitu Miah happened when Cambriani was on his way home after a night out.

The violent, early-hours incident was described after 20- year-old Cambriani, of Wellfield, Dunvant, pleaded guilty to criminal damage and assault causing actual bodily harm.

Ieuan Rees, prosecuting, said that at 3am on March 20, last year, the defendant got into Mr Miah's taxi in the city centre and asked to be taken to Dunvant.

The cabbie duly drove to the area but stopped near the Hungry Horse pub when he became "exasperated by the lack of directions" from Cambriani.

Cambriani then got out, Swansea Crown Court heard, and damaged a mirror on the taxi by kicking it.

There followed an altercation between him and Mr Miah — and this caused the driver to leave his vehicle and run away from the scene in fear.

But Cambriani chased him, pulled him to the ground and began gouging his eyes, said Mr Rees.

He also punched Mr Miah repeatedly and banged his head against the pavement, while two friends of the defendant's who had been with him in the taxi yelled for him to stop.

Policed were alerted by locals who heard the commotion and came out to find Mr Miah with injuries to his face, head, arm and knee.

When arrested, Cambriani claimed that Mr Miah had been the aggressor in the incident.

But he abandoned this claim by entering guilty pleas when the charges were first put to him in court.

Judge Peter Heywood made Cambriani the subject of a 26-week sentence at a young offenders' institution, but agreed to suspend this for 18 months.

He also ordered him to pay £250 compensation to Mr Miah and carry out 180 hours of unpaid work for the community.

It was a serious case, said the judge, because the taxi driver had been performing an important service and should not have had to put up with violent conduct of this kind.