A Croydon woman involved in a food fight with another woman has had her conviction for common assault quashed.

Asha Thakur, 47, had her common assault conviction and community order lifted after appealing against the decisions at Croydon Crown Court last Friday, October 6.

Last December Ms Thakur was found guilty of common assault at Croydon Magistrates Court after an altercation erupted between herself and Polish-born Malgorzata Strozynska at a property on Frant Road, Thornton Heath.

The court heard how Ms Thakur and Mrs Strozynska, who were sharing a communal kitchen at the Thornton Heath property, started throwing potatoes and sugar at each other during the fight on December 28, 2006.

Through an interpreter, Mrs Strozynska said: "She grabbed me, scratching my right arm. It hurt. Then she went upstairs. We sat down at the dining table and she came up to the table and emptied a full bowl of sugar on my husband's head.

"She threw a bottle of lemonade at me but I managed to catch it. Potatoes were thrown around - some on the ceiling, some on the floor. I was very scared."

Ms Thakur denied scratching Mrs Strozynska and said the argument had started over a padlock that had gone missing from her home.

Ms Thakur said she had only switched off the cooker twice and claimed that Mrs Strozynska's husband had raised his hand as if to hit her, she said: "He waved a drill in my face. I threw sugar in his eyes and ran out."

In lifting Ms Thakur's conviction and sentence Recorder Martin Joy said: "We will never know what really happened. There was obviously an argument in a case of what might be described as domestic violence."