SINGAPORE - A man paid a heavy price on Thursday for getting into an argument with a stall assistant over bottle caps.

He ended up hitting a stall assistant's head with a beer bottle and was imprisoned.

On the evening of Jan 23, Tay Tian Guan had ordered six bottles of Carlsberg beer from the drinks stall at a coffeeshop in Jalan Membina.

Sometime after midnight, he approached Mr Toh Hap Hoo with four bottle caps, each indicating that the bearer won 80 cents.

But Mr Toh said the promotion had ended, and Tay would not be getting a redemption. The dispute was eventually settled by Mr Toh's supervisor.

Tay left the coffeeshop begrudgingly but hung around the back of the coffeeshop.

About half an hour later, he returned to the coffeeshop and confronted the 61-year-old victim, demanding that he follow him to the back of the coffeeshop.

There, they had another dispute during which Tay grabbed an empty beer bottle and struck the victim on the head, causing it to bleed. Tay then fled.

The victim had a cut each over his scalp and face.

Tay, 49, a system furnisher, was jailed for one week after admitting to causing hurt.

The victim was in court to plead for leniency on behalf of Tay even though the latter was represented. Mr Toh said he had forgiven Tay, who had compensated him $2,000 for the injury. He said when the incident took place, he actually raised his voice at Tay.

Tay could have been jailed for up to two years and/or fined up to $5,000.