• Defender pleads guilty to offences at Essex nightclub • Tomkins told ‘this is a blot on your character’

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The West Ham defender James Tomkins has been fined £3,500 for assaulting a police officer. Tomkins pleaded guilty to assaulting a police constable, being drunk and disorderly in a public place and obstructing a constable outside the Sugar Hut nightclub in Brentwood, Essex, on the night of 21 December.

Martin Everett, chair of the bench at Southend Magistrates’ Court, Essex, told him “it is a late guilty plea but it has saved the court a trial and witnesses”.

Tomkins was fined £3,500 for the assault and was ordered to pay £3,785 court costs, £200 compensation to the police officer and a £120 victim surcharge.

He was told there would be no further penalty for the other offences.

The 25-year-old had been partying at the nightclub made famous by the TV series The Only Way Is Essex.

Everett told Tomkins “this is a blot on your character”. He also said he had “no doubt” that West Ham “ will take their own action” to punish him.

He added: ”You were in this particular case, pushed quite hard by a member of staff but your reaction, as you have admitted, was an overreaction.”

He told the footballer that in the police car he had dealt with the situation “inappropriately causing an injury to the police officer”.

Tomkins, a former England Under-21 international who appeared for Team GB at the Olympics in 2012, had played for West Ham on the day of the incident – a 3-1 defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Rupert Bowers, defending, had told the court that as a footballer Tomkins gets “a lot a attention, much of it unwanted”.

He said: “They receive training and receive guidance from the FA. He accepts that on this occasion he let himself down. He will no doubt also be disciplined by his club by way of a financial penalty. He has been extremely stressed about these proceedings, about his reputation and the coverage it has had.”

He also described him as a “young man of previous good character (who is) usually looked up to.”

Tomkins left the court without comment .