A 28-year-old Shropshire man who punched women in the face when they refused to work for him has been jailed for more than three years.

Rashad Dad, of Merganser Close, Leegomery, Telford, appeared at Shrewsbury Crown Court yesterday for sentencing.

He had admitted breaching a suspended sentence by assaulting a woman and causing her actual bodily harm on April 26, breaching a Crasbo on March 1 and obstructing a police officer on April 29.

The court heard Dad had been given a 40-week prison sentence suspended for two years on February 6 for assaulting two women on separate occasions and that less than three months later he breached the sentence by hitting another woman in the face after he had stopped her in the street and asked her to work for him.

Yesterday he was sentenced to 18 months in prison for the assault and nine months for the breach of the Crasbo, to run consecutively.

He was also ordered to serve 14 weeks in prison, concurrently, for obstructing a police officer and told the 40-week suspended sentence would be activated in its entirety, to run consecutively.

The Crasbo was extended from five years to a term of 10 years.

Judge Robin Onions, sentencing, told Dad if he had the power to do so he would have jailed him indefinitely for public protection.

Miss Sarah Cooper, for Dad, said the main source of the offending has always been alcohol and substance misuse.