A Sandy's man who hit the mother of his child was fined at the lower end of the spectrum in Magistrates' Court on Friday, because of his honesty.

Terry Eugene Thomas, 44, of Sound View Road in Sandy's, pled guilty to unlawful assault with bodily harm.

The court heard two slightly different versions of the events from Crown counsel Cindy Clarke and the defendant himself in the courtroom.

Ms Clarke, reading from the summary of evidence, told the court that on the morning of September 6 the victim went to Thomas's home on Sound View Road in order to pick up her daughter.

The pair began arguing, and Thomas ordered the woman to leave his house. When she did not, he took her helmet and her sunglasses and threw them out the door.

When the woman still did not leave the house Thomas slapped her, cutting her lip. He then threw a piece of a broken mailbox after her as she finally left.

When given a chance to speak, Thomas informed the court that in fact he had asked the victim to come and pick their daughter up early, as he had an appointment to go to that day. Instead he said, she arrived a few hours later than Thomas had asked her to do.

"I told her I had to leave," Thomas said. "She refused, she started cursing me. She said I'm not going anywhere and neither are you . . . she didn't wanna leave so I pushed her. She came back in the house. So I smacked her.

"She left then," Thomas finished, to a small ripple of laughter in the courtroom.

"I was defending my house," he explained. "I told my daughter to leave and she left."

The maximum penalty for this charge, Acting Magistrate Tyrone Chin told the court, is a year in prison or a fine of $350-$500.

I"m going to go to the lower end of the fine because of your frankness," said Mr. Chin, fining Thomas $350. "But I don't condone it (what you did)."

"I don't condone it either," replied Thomas.