A university graduate who sprayed two nightclub doormen with petrol while holding a box of matches has been spared jail by a judge.

James Vogel was told by Recorder David Gordon that he could consider himself "very fortunate indeed not to be going to prison" after he heard how the 24-year-old had attacked the doormen outside the Revolution nightclub in April.

Bradford Crown Court was told that trouble flared when Vogel was kicked out of the club because a woman complained that he had spat at her. The defendant denied that allegation and was angered by the rough treatment and abuse he says he suffered at the hands of the bouncers when they were asking him to leave.

He then went to a nearby petrol station and filled up a water bottle with petrol before returning a short time later to confront the doorman.

Prosecutor Helen Weir told the court he then sprayed them with the petrol. The doormen, Patrick Wray and Peter Hamilton, then managed to grapple him to the ground and saw that he had the matches in his left hand, he said.

Vogel, of Back Washington Street, Bradford, was arrested and confessed to the police what he had done but said that he never had any intention of setting the petrol alight and that he only had the matches because he smoked.

At an earlier hearing he pleaded guilty to charges of affray, possession of an offensive weapon and assault.

His barrister Lesley Dickinson told the judge that before this incident her client was a man of "impeccable character".

She said that Vogel, who has no previous convictions, has been working at the Cedar Court Hotel since finishing his degree in the summer and was extremely sorry for what he had done.

Miss Dickinson said Vogel had no intention of hurting either complainant but merely wanted to scare them.

"This is an absolute tragedy for him that he is before the court for what are serious offences," she said. "His motivation was to frighten and he's at an absolute loss to explain what was going through his mind and it can only be down to the drink that he had taken that night."

Ordering him to serve a 250-hours community punishment order Recorder Gordon told Vogel that he could tell that he was sorry for what he had done.

But he added: "What you did was absolutely disgraceful, a very frightening incident. I have no doubt that the staff were extremely frightened."

Vogel was also ordered to pay £500 in compensation to each of the doormen.