A taxi driver was spat at and racially abused after refusing to pick up a fare in Alderley Edge, a court heard.

Nourddine Boufaied was on his way to pick up a woman from a restaurant in the village at about 1.30am when Dominic Dickson stood in the road and flagged him down, a court heard.

Dickson, 26, who had been in a nightclub with a group of pals on December 18, offered the driver £60 to take him and his friend back to Liverpool, where they lived.

But Debbie Byrne, prosecuting, said when Mr Boufaied’s original fare arrived, Dickson became angry.

He addressed several racist slurs at his victim before spitting on his face  through the passenger side window. The taxi driver then attempted to get out of the car but Dickson shut the door on his leg.

The woman passenger, who was seated in the back of the cab, said she was  scared by the whole episode.

Dickson was eventually arrested by police officers on patrol in the area.

In interview he accused Mr Boufaied of making insulting comments about the fact he was from Liverpool.

He  also denied making the racist comments,  but he pleaded guilty to racially aggravated common assault at Macclesfield magistrates’ court on Wednesday.

David Norman, defending, said: “This is a very unpleasant offence, a taxi driver simply picking up a fare was treated in this way by Mr Dickson. He had been in a club all evening, with no incidents and had drunk a lot. He accepts he was very drunk at the time.

“He said in interview something was said to him.

“Whatever was said to him and he has no evidence of it,  something provoked him and he reacted in a way that was totally unacceptable.

“Because he was shouting he had sputum gathering in his mouth.

“He says it may have come out of his mouth. He doesn’t accept he deliberately spat.”

Dickson, of Fairfax Road, Norris Green, Liverpool, will be sentenced in three weeks after the case was adjourned for a pre-sentence report.

But magistrates warned him it was a ‘very serious offence’.