When a Wellington man didn't find the shopkeeper's prices appealing, he went for the bananas.

In what might be a first for New Zealand, Cesar Robert Scanlan, 43, was charged with assault with a bunch of bananas.

It was certainly a first for Wellington District Court judge Tim Black.

"It's the first time I've seen an assault with a weapon being a bunch of bananas," he said on Thursday.

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The assault charge carried a maximum of a year's jail. It did not last though.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Mike Stonyer agreed to reduce the charge to disorderly behaviour, which carries a maximum $1000 fine.

And Scanlan pleaded guilty.

He had been at Jimmy's Fruit Mart in Newtown on November 25 last year when he got into an argument with owner Dinesh Patel about the price of what Statistics New Zealand says is our favourite fruit.

As tensions escalated, Scanlan picked up bunches of the fruit and threw them. Patel ended up on the floor, with a scrape to one arm.

Scanlan admitted throwing the bananas.

The judge agreed to give him a suspended sentence for six months. If he reoffends again in that time he has to be resentenced.

The summary of facts did not disclose the cost of the bananas or what happened to the thrown fruit.