County Court judge Wendy Wilmoth said Jeffrey Farrell’s sister had been living with Joel Smith in a house she jointly owned with her mother and her de facto partner.

When the relationship ended in June 2013, Farrell’s sister moved out but Mr Smith refused to leave.

Judge Wilmoth said that when tenants moved into the house Mr Smith stayed in a bungalow at the rear of the property.

The Farrells hired lawyers to try to force Mr Smith out but he refused and engaged his own lawyers before placing a caveat over the house.

Mr Smith claimed he had an equitable interest in the house because he had carried out renovations at his own expense.

Judge Wilmoth said Mr Farrell, 30, had been drinking with his sister and her new boyfriend on September 18 when Mr Farrell became very drunk and claimed not to remember what happened next.

‘‘That night, at about 11 pm, Mr Smith was at home in his bungalow with his girlfriend when a tenant in the main house heard glass breaking and the front door slam,’’ the judge said on Friday when sentencing Farrell to a two-year community corrections order and 200 hours of unpaid community work. He had pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary and recklessly causing injury charges.

‘‘The tenant rang Smith and told him someone had broken into the house.

‘‘You and the co-offender, wearing masks, had broken in through the front door," she told Mr Farrell.

The judge said Mr Smith then entered the house holding a steel pole, and the co-offender punched him to the right eye.

"Smith hit him with the pole, and as he backed off, you then hit Smith on the head with a fist. The other offender attacked Smith again, whereupon Smith held him in a bear-hug. They wrestled together until the offender attempted to gouge Smith’s eye, causing him to scream. You then said ‘Let’s go.’’’

Judge Wilmoth said there was still a dispute over the house but nothing had been heard from Mr Smith’s lawyer since early this year.

‘‘It was against this background that you apparently decided, in a very drunken state to take matters into your own hands and break into the house knowing tenants were there, and with no regard for their rights or welfare,’’ the judge said.

‘‘People are entitled to feel safe in their homes, rather than be terrified and indeed injured by those who consider themselves entitled to take the law into their own hands.’’