MADRID, April 25 A court in Spain sentenced Scotland's former world boxing champion Scott Harrison to two-and-a-half years in prison on Friday after finding him guilty of assault and attempted theft of a car.

Harrison, twice the WBO featherweight champion, was detained on Thursday as he arrived in the southern city of Malaga on a flight from Glasgow, Scotland.

The court in Malaga found the 31-year-old guilty of attempting to steal a car in the village of Alhaurin el Grande in Malaga province in October 2006, and of assaulting a couple in the vehicle as well as a policeman.

It ordered him to pay 4,848 euros (6,318 dollars) in compensation to the three victims as well as the expenses of the trial, according to a copy of the court ruling obtained by AFP.

The court said Harrison and his uncle Jack McGill, whose body was discovered hanged in woodland near Glasgow last year, approached a couple in the early hours of October 6, 2006 just as they parked their car and then tried to make off with their vehicle.Harrison “used his status as a boxer” and punched the man in the head when he offered resistance, kocking him to the ground and causing him to loose a molar and busting his lip so badly that it required stitches, it added.

He and his uncle then tried to intimidate the woman, who was seven months pregnant, by shouting at her.

Harrison, who at the time lived in Alhaurin el Grande, and his uncle fled the scene after the woman managed to call police on her mobile telephone but the authorities quickly caught up with them.

The two repeatedly struck one of the officers who tried to arrest them, causing bruises to his right leg which required medical care.

“The accused's faculties at the time of committing the acts were slightly affected by the fact that he had consumed alcoholic beverages,” the court said.

Harrison spent almost five weeks in prison in 2006 after being detained over the allegations, but was released on bail.

On December 31, he was released from jail in Glasgow after serving four months of a 10-month sentence for assaulting his girlfriend and a police officer.

Harrison, nicknamed The Real McCoy, won 25 of his 29 professional fights, including 14 by knock-out.

However, he has not fought for three years and his licence has since been revoked by the British Boxing Board of Control.—AFP