A builder who slapped a police officer as he tried to break up a fight between two women outside a nightclub has been fined.

Thomas Parnell had been drinking cocktails and gin at Bar Chocolate in the centre of Maidstone when he came across the brawl at around 6am on January 12.

The 21-year-old noticed a man clad in black involved in the scuffle and approached him before landing a slap on his face.

Unwittingly Parnell had struck a police officer and was pepper sprayed moments later.

During a hearing at Maidstone Magistrates' Court, he admitted one charge of common assault against an emergency worker.

Prosecutor Deborah Jones said: “Just before 6am police were called to an incident at Bar Chocolate after reports of a fight.

“After arriving at the scene PC Craig Boundy tries to get control of the situation where two females are fighting on the floor.

"The defendant approaches the officer and he pushes the defendant back.

“The defendant comes back and slaps him in the face.

“He was arrested and interviewed.

“He said he remembers girls in the floor and said he grabbed a person on the floor and slapped him.

"He didn’t realise it was a police officer and he said he was sorry.”

Jag Takk, defending Parnell, revealed his client had been remorseful since the incident and has repeatedly apologised for his actions.

He added: “Mr Parnell went out with a friend of his.

"Over the course of the weekend he said he was at Bar Chocolate and said he had some gin and tonics and cocktails.

“He came out of bar chocolate and has seen two females fighting on the ground. He saw a male person over them.

"The male is a police officer dressed in all black. He didn’t realise he was a police officer.

“Mr Parnell has been pushed by the officer and that’s when he has reacted with a slap. He didn’t do this intentionally.”

“As soon as he committed this offence he was pepper sprayed. When he realised what he had done he apologised.

“It was a genuine mistake on his behalf.”

Parnell, of Grove Lane, Hunton, was fined £100 and ordered to pay costs and a victim surcharge.