A BUILDER'S jaw was smashed in two places by his former boss after he left to work for a rival company without repaying a debt, a jury heard.

Damian Croad was twice punched in the face when Craig Morphet tracked him down and accused him of "robbing" him, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Morphet, 39, of Crescent View, Keighley, denies inflicting grievous bodily harm on Mr Croad, a renderer and pebble dasher, on August 24 last year.

Prosecutor Clare Walsh told the court that Mr Croad used to work for Morphet but left to go to another company. He owed his former employer £200 and Morphet was phoning and texting him.

Mrs Walsh said there was phone evidence that Morphet was looking for Mr Croad and asking him to get in touch.

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Mr Croad told the jury he was at a friend's house in Keighley when Morphet knocked on the window and he went out to meet him.

He alleges Morphet then struck him to the left side of his jaw and told him: "You should have kept in touch. You robbed me."

Mr Croad alleged that Morphet then punched him again to the face.

He suffered a double fracture to the jaw and was taken by ambulance to Airedale General Hospital.

He was transferred overnight to Bradford Royal Infirmary where he had surgery to insert three titanium plates into the injury.

He spent a week in hospital and was readmitted in October for a further operation.

Mr Croad said he suffered pain and discomfort and he had lost all feeling in that side of his jaw.

Cross-examined by defence barrister, James Bourne-Arton, he agreed he lied to doctors and the police at the hospital. He said he did not want to be a grass and he was "scared of repercussions."

He made up a story saying he was attacked in the street by a group of "foreign" looking males in dark clothing and hooded tops.

Mr Croad said he had taken heroin and cocaine in the past but he denied that his jaw was broken when he was beaten up by a group of Asian men over a drug debt.

Morphet denies all knowledge of the assault on Mr Croad, stating he was in the Bracken Arms public house, in Bracken Bank Grove, Keighley, for the whole of that evening.

The jury was told he would be calling alibi witnesses to support his case.

The trial continues.