FORMER Wisbech landlord Martin Pettit needed 28 stitches and a skin graft after a police dog was set on him just eight days before Christmas. He had been verbally and physically aggressive to officers, and the dog was put on him after he ignored two warni

FORMER Wisbech landlord Martin Pettit needed 28 stitches and a skin graft after a police dog was set on him just eight days before Christmas.

He had been verbally and physically aggressive to officers, and the dog was put on him after he ignored two warnings, Fenland magistrates heard on Wednesday.

Pettit, 29, of Storbeck Road, Wisbech, was a former landlord of the Bowling Green in Wisbech.

Police called to a disturbance outside that pub in the early hours found Pettit being abusive to his wife. When she was taken to a police van he tried to get her out. After two warnings the dog was used, and he was taken to the ground and arrested, said prosecutor David Myles.

Pettit had left the Bowling Green around a year before the incident, and he and his wife had split up three months before the incident, explained solicitor Roger Glazebrook.

The couple went to the pub although Pettit had not wanted to go there, and he was upset because of their argument.

"Police set the dog on him and he ended up in hospital," said Mr Glazebrook. "He had 28 stitches and a skin graft on his hand as a result of the dog attacking him."

Pettit, who runs two local football teams and is about to start work as a taxi driver, was given a six-month community order with supervision and 40 hours of unpaid community work. He must pay £95 costs.