Store worker assaulted following refund refusal

VICTIM NEEDED CT SCAN AFTER ORDEAL

- By Sara Nichol Reporter [e-mail]

Elaine Wood

A CUSTOMER repeatedly punched a charity shop assistant and pulled out clumps of her hair during a row over a refund.

Elaine Wood had gone into Barnardo's, in Wallsend's Forum Shopping Centre, and demanded her money back for an item bought by her mother.

However, when a worker told her they couldn't offer her a refund as it was outside of the charity's 14-day returns policy, the 55-year-old flew into a rage.

Wood claims she lost her temper and "saw red" after the victim pushed her as she tried to get her out of the store, prosecutors said.

She then rained down punches on the victim's head and pulled her hair, leaving her needing to go to hospital for a CT scan due to severe swelling and bruising on her face, a court was told.

Wood, of York Drive, in Wallsend, initially tried to claim she acted in self-defence but pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm when she appeared in the dock.