A PUB row between cousins over a £10 debt ended in tragedy when one collapsed and died almost instantaneously, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Civil engineer James Singleton, 29, asked for repayment and slapped Mark Taylor's face with his open hand when he said he did not have the money.

Prosecutor David Lane QC said Mr Taylor, 25, fell to the floor and never regained consciousness after the incident at the Bay Horse pub, Union Road, Oswaldtwistle.

He was rushed to hospital but was already dead. A pathologist said that, in jerking away from the blow, a blood vessel had burst at the base of his brain.

"On the evidence, the open-handed slap carried little force, but death was almost instantaneous," said Mr Lane.

Both men had been drinking and when he heard of his cousin's death there was evidence Singleton was genuinely upset.

He had loaned his cousin money which did not belong to him and was anxious it should be repaid.

Singleton, of Kingfisher Court, Oswaldtwistle, admitted manslaughter. He was jailed for 12 months. Mr Justice Henriques told him: "The circumstances are highly unusual. You were engaged in enforcing a debt and the slap, not with full power, was an unlawful act, an act of aggression.

"The deceased had had a substantial amount to drink and over the years you have shown a propensity to violence.

'What you did was a criminal act when enforcing a debt. It cost a man his life." Peter Wright QC, defending, said Singleton and his family would carry the burden of a tragic death for the rest of their lives. Singleton had pleaded guilty at an early stage and within hours made admissions to police about the deeply regretted incident. Singleton had been disconcerted by his cousin's failure to return the money.

"The violence used was modest in the extreme -- an open-handed slap without power -- and an attempt to avoid the blow contributed to the mechanism of death," said Mr Wright.