A joiner who battered his wife who kept his books, after finding thousands of pounds were missing from his account, has been spared jail.
Christopher Currie, 39, flew into a rage after realising there was only £1800 left in his business account when he had expected there to be £8000.
He then found the HMRC were chasing him for a £5000 tax bill, Stirling Sheriff Court was told.
His solicitor, Marco Buonaccorsi, said: "He started drinking and taking cannabis, and essentially as he became more drunk, he took more and more cannabis and became more and more angry."
He told his wife Louise: "You're a rat, a scumbag and a cheat", and launched a prolonged assault.
The incident began about 1am at the couple's home in Fallin, Stirlingshire, on August 28th after they'd had friends round.
Prosecutor Sarah Smith said: "He woke her up, dragged her by the arm out of bed to the top of the stairs.
"She lay there screaming.
"Eventually she was able to get back to bed but he woke her up again at seven o'clock in the morning, again grabbing her by the arm.
"He pulled her out of bed by her hair, at which point she hit her head off the bedframe."
He punched her a number of times to the face.
Miss Smith said: "She curled herself into a ball to protect herself, at which point he stamped on the back of her head."
The court heard that a nine year old boy was in the room while the assault was going on.
Police were called, "arrived shortly", and Currie was arrested.
Loiuise suffered "reddening and bruising".
Currie admitted assaulting her to her injury and committing a statutory breach of the peace.
Mr Buonaccorsi said Currie had resigned from a job he'd had at the time, in the belief he had £8000 in the bank.
When he found there wasn't, "he saw red".
The solicitor added: "Essentially his wife was in control of the finances for the family, and also did Mr Currie's books.
"On the day of the incident he tried to access his online banking and he couldn't.
"He asked his wife for the password, and advises that she had actually closed all the windows in the house prior to giving him it, in anticipation that there would be an argument.
"He lost his temper.
"He is aware how close he is to jail today."
Sheriff Keith O'Mahony sentenced Currie to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work, and placed him under social work supervision for 30 months.
He also ordered him to take part in the Caledonian Men's Project domestic violence reduction programme.
He told him: "In all the circumstances I'm persuaded, but only just, that this can be dealt with by way of a community-based disposal."
