Man left with 12cm scar down face after nightclub attack

A DRUNKEN broker wept as he was sentenced to two and a half years in jail after glassing a man in the face with a champagne flute leaving him scarred for life.

Neil Durbridge, 31, of Peel Road, North Wembley, was also sentenced to a further 18-month consecutive sentence for a �2.4 mortgage fraud.

Paul Baldock, 26 was left with a 12cm zigzag scar after the mortgage broker dragged the broken glass down his cheek.

Durbridge had drunk seven pints of lager, a Jack Daniels and coke and a bottle of champagne as he celebrated a successful deal at the Relflex bar, in Watling Street, near St Paul’s Cathedral, on February 23, 2008.

Judge Peter Tester, presiding at Southwark Crown Court, said: “The injury caused by the glass was dreadful. The broken glass opened up the whole of the left side of Mr Baldock’s face from his eye down to his chin.”

Following the attack, Mr Baldock was unable to return to work for several months and subsequently left his job.

The court heard how he was out celebrating his girlfriends 24th birthday with family and friends when a row broke-out with Durbridge.

Durbridge told the court the injury was an accident and it was him who had been attacked.

He said: “I didn’t deliberately do anything, but I was trying to get him off me, and that meant maybe striking out at him. What they are alleging is complete lies. It didn’t happen.”

Durbridge, who was found guilty of unlawful wounding last November, was cleared of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

On January 19, Durbridge also admitted 12 counts of fraud by submitting false valuations to mortgage providers on houses in Willesden and Harrow between November 2007 and March 2008.

The broker inflated the value of properties when applying for mortgages on behalf of clients.

DC Simon Russen, from the City of London Police, told the Times: “Durbridge’s abuse of his new employer’s trust left lenders exposed to hundreds of thousands of pounds of losses and his personal and professional life in tatters.

“Anyone thinking of cooking the books to secure a bigger bonus or a better job should look long and hard at this case and remind themselves that fraud committed from behind your desk is still a serious crime with serious consequences.”