Two men spent the weekend in a prison cell after a heated bar argument.

Jonte Pearson, 22, and Michael Swan, 35, were arrested for obstructing police who intervened when they saw them in an altercation with other men outside the Bistro at the Beach bar on Front Street on Saturday.

Both pleaded guilty in Magistrates’ Court to obstruction.

Prosecutor Cindy Clarke told the court officers arrested the pair at about 3.15am. She said they behaved aggressively and the police had to use captor spray.

The court heard Pearson, of Cockburn Road, Sandys, had been on a party bus that evening to celebrate a friend’s birthday and had a lot to drink.

When an argument broke out between him and other men later at the bar, Swan, of Curving Court, Pembroke, went to his aid.

“I saw my boy in a hostile situation,” Swan said. “I tried to get him out of a hostile situation. There’s a lot of crazy violence going on around here.”

Pearson apologised to the court and said he had already apologised to the police officers who arrested him.

“I made a mistake,” he said. “I feel I wasn’t being very aggressive, maybe I was mouthing off.

“I’m a hard-working young man, I’ve been employed for six years at the same place, I’ve never been in any trouble.”

Neither Pearson, a waiter, nor Swan, who is employed by the Parks Department, have previous convictions.

“It’s nice to hear young men come to court and say, ‘I’m employed, I don’t get in trouble’,” said Magistrate Khamisi Tokunbo.

“But it’s not nice to hear you’re acting the same way as these other hooligans act.

“You’re out of control with the alcohol — look at what you’ve done, trashed your character.

“The situation could have exploded into something else. I don’t have too much sympathy because of the current climate. You’re not the man, you’re not the law.”

Mr Tokunbo asked if they would risk appearing in court again.

“Hell no,” Swan replied.

Mr Tokunbo said he was impressed with the way the men had represented themselves, their work history and their previous good characters.

“I expect that you won’t come back,” he said. “On that basis I’m not going to convict you.”

He gave both men a 12-month conditional discharge.