bouncer earlier this year.

Kingsley Burch, of Cable Hill, was charged in Magistrates' Court with possessing a .177-calibre BB gun without a licence, discharging a shot from that gun, and unlawfully assaulting 45-year-old security guard Malik Ashar Karim and doing him unlawful bodily harm.

Burch, who is represented by Mr. Michael Scott, was also charged with 22-year-old Eura Ible and 20-year-old Shira Y. Lowry of unlawfully assembling outside Oasis night club between May 14 and 15. He pleaded guilty to all of the charges.

Ible and Lowry, both of Warwick, also pleaded guilty to unlawfully assembling.

Ible admitted a further charge of possessing a machete. And Lowry was fined $300 on Tuesday for unlawfully assembling and possessing a pool stick.

The court heard that Burch, Ible, Lowry, and another man who was not charged, were refused entry into Oasis and a fight between them and club employees broke out.

Prosecuting, Insp. Peter Duffy said Burch and the others, who had been drinking, left the club and travelled to their respective homes. Burch collected a serrated-edge knife, Ible a machete, and Lowry a pool stick.

Burch later returned to his home to exchange the knife for a BB gun.

Insp. Duffy said the other man just accompanied them.

The men, he said, consumed more alcohol at the Anchorage Club on North Shore before returning to Front Street where they waited for Karim to finish work.

Around 3.30 a.m., as Karim and another employee were locking up, Insp. Duffy said Burch swung at Karim with a machete, "barely missing his shoulder''.

"He then took the gun and fired from four feet away,'' Insp. Duffy added.

The pellet struck Karim below the eye, causing bruising and swelling.

Karim was taken to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital while Burch, Ible and Lowry were taken into custody at Hamilton Police station.

There, Insp. Duffy said, Burch told Police he had wanted to frighten Karim, but not harm him.

Ible's lawyer, Mr. Richard Hector, said Burch was the leader in the incident.

And he said his client only played a minor role.

Mr. Hector said: "This young man is not a bad person. It's just that he was involved with other people and went along with them.'' He said Ible told him they entered the club through the backdoor and when they decided to leave "the big guy'' grabbed them around the neck and lifted them off the ground.

Noting that Ible spent two days in custody and therefore lost his job at Kentucky Fried Chicken, Mr. Hector said he had already been punished.

He asked Senior Magistrate the Wor. Will Francis to impose nothing harsher than community service, 80 hours of which Ible is about to finish for a previous offence.

Taking into consideration Mr. Hector's suggestion and Ible's plea, Mr. Francis ordered Ible to serve 80 more hours of community service when his other sentence ends.

The case resumes on Monday.