A former Dubbo tradie who punched two McDonald's employees after attempting to go through the drive-through with an excavator says he's found more to do than "getting on the grog".
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Mitchell Bergman, 28, was a passenger in a Toyota Hilux, towing a trailer loaded with a large excavator, when it attempted to go through the McDonald's drive through on Cobra Street in Dubbo.
According to police, the Hilux entered the drive-through despite there being a sign in place listing the maximum height of vehicles allowed.
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As a result the excavator being towed collided with the height sign, causing it to fall to the ground and break.
Two McDonalds employees were cleaning outside when they witnessed what happened.
However Bergman and the driver attempted to continue driving through.
One of the employees tried to stop them, concerned the excavator would cause more damage, before the driver yelled out for the workers to open the chain fence so they could leave.
According to court documents the staff became concerned Bergman and the driver were "trying to escape" and said "you need to stop so we can sort this out", before Bergman got out of the ute and unclipped the chain fence.
Bergman then yelled at one of the employees "do you want to play?", before he approached the staff member and punched him in his right cheek.
The other employee witnessed the attack and asked Bergman what he was doing.
Bergman turned to him and punched him in the face, before he got back in the ute. The pair drove off fleeing the scene.
Police arrived and viewed CCTV footage, which captured the incident. Officers later spoke with the driver of the ute, who told them Bergman was the passenger.
In Dubbo Local Court on Wednesday, Bergman pleaded guilty to two counts of common assault.
Defence lawyer David Hemsworth said the offences had occurred during a time of his life "where he wasn't doing very well".
The court heard Bergman had come out of a disagreement with his boss about his contract finishing, but had since relocated to Newcastle.
"I'm instructed now he doesn't drink," Mr Hemsworth said.
"He says there's more things to do in Newcastle than getting on the grog."
The court heard Bergman had been sentenced to two community corrections orders for violence-related offences in March, for incidents that had occurred after this attack.
Magistrate Wilson said Bergman was "fortunate" he wasn't on the community corrections orders at the time of this offence, and could not be a factor in his sentence.
"There's no doubt that alcohol was a contributing factor, but that's no sort of excuse for this type of behaviour," he said.
Bergman was convicted and sentenced to a 12-month community corrections order and fined $1500.