Efforts by a man to convince the court that his common-law wife was the instigator in a domestic dispute proved useless after he was fined $10,000 for assault.

Everton Myers, who has been charged with assault occasioning bodily harm, was sentenced in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday.

It is alleged that Myers tried to remove the complainant from his bedroom and the two got into a tussle.

It is reported that the accused hit the complainant several times in her face.

However, Myers, who denied hitting the complainant, told the court that he is innocent.

"Your Honour, she took the sim card out of my phone and sent text messages to two of my female contacts, saying 'Yuh naah stop leave mi man, Yuh nuh si him naah come home to yuh'. Your Honour, she even bit me. I don't know if it was during that tussle she got injured," Myers told the court.