A martial arts teacher who put his brother-in-law in a chokehold and left him unconscious in a deserted car park has been spared jail so he can finish his City business degree.
Ali El-Fouani, 22, attacked 25-year-old Adam Gomes, grabbing him round the neck and cutting off oxygen to his brain.
The row was over El-Fouani’s sister splitting up from Mr Gomes and the question of who would keep gold from their marriage. El-Fouani went to confront his brother-in-law and met him at 3.30am on March 22 last year in an Asda car park near the Old Kent Road.
El-Fouani, who teaches martial arts to children in Brentwood, left Mr Gomes unconscious on the ground but eventually returned to check that he had come round, Inner London crown court heard.
He denied assaulting Mr Gomes but was found guilty yesterday. Recorder Silas Reid said he would ordinarily have been sent to prison for the attack, and “richly deserves it”.
However, he gave El-Fouani a five-month suspended sentence so that he could complete his final year of a business course at the St Mary’s Axe campus of the BPP Business School. He runs a barber shop franchise and was said to be set for a first class degree.
El-Fouani, who will be under a tagged curfew for six months, was also ordered to do 180 hours of community service and pay £2,000 in costs and £1,000 compensation to Mr Gomes.