A draughtsman jailed for two years after a single punch led to his victim's death during a pub argument was freed by three appeal court judges yesterday.

The Court of Criminal appeal quashed Alan Burns' jail term and substituted a sentence of 240 hours' community service.

Burns, 38, of George Street, Aberdeen, admitted the culpable homicide of Ian Stewart in the city's Filthy McNasty's pub on June 16 1996 in what was described as a ''classic case of a foolish incident having horrendous consequences''.

The two were regulars at the pub and had apparently been involved in an argument about sport on a previous occasion at which Burns' wife had been present.

On the night of Mr Stewart's death, he had gone to the pub following a golf weekend and had taken a considerable amount of drink. Burns went over to seek an apology for the earlier incident and had been told to ''F... off''.

As the victim turned away, Burns punched him once on the neck. A short time later Mr Stewart's legs buckled and he fell to the ground. He was given the kiss of life but was later pronounced dead at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

A post mortem examination showed that he had died from a brain haemorrhage which followed the rupture of an artery in his neck, probably cause by the blow.

Jailing Burns for two years at the High Court in Aberdeen in March 1997, Lord Bonomy told him: ''The fact remains that you struck a man who was turning away from you and posing no threat.''

Burn was released on bail pending his appeal against his sentence which was heard by Lord Rodger, the Lord Justice General, sitting with Lords Caplan and Philip.

Lord Rodger said the victim had consumed a considerable amount of alcohol. He had returned early from an outing and had arrived at a friend's home in his stocking feet.

A post mortem examination revealed a blood/alcohol count of 325 - four times over the limit.

When the two met at the pub, Burns told Mr Stewart this was his chance to apologise for having used bad language in front of his wife on the previous occasion, but the victim swore at him.

The medical evidence was that little force would have been needed to cause the type of injury to the artery which the dead man suffered.

Mr Gordon Jackson QC, defence counsel, submitted it was the sort of foolish incident over a minor matter where the police would not have been called in, but for the horrendous consequences.

Lord Bonomy had pointed out the risk of serious injury or death from a blow to the neck or head and felt that a jail sentence was appropriate in the public interest to mark Burns' part in the incident and to make clear the seriousness of such assaults.

Lord Rodger pointed out, however, that the blow had landed where it did, not because it was aimed there but because Mr Stewart moved away.

The approach of the trial judge would effectively mean that a custodial sentence would be inevitable in any case where someone died as a result of a blow to the head or neck. But in the view of the appeal court, that was too extreme a proposition.

They had to consider what the appropriate sentence was in the very special circumstances of this case, where there were a number of testimonials in favour of the accused and friends of the dead man had written to say that he should not be sent to prison.

This was plainly a case where a custodial sentence would bring further disaster both on the accused and his family. Lord Rodger said the appeal court had come to the view that in this case a jail sentence was not necessary.

They took into account the moderate force of the blow, the completely unforeseen results, the remorse expressed by the accused and the fact that he had faced a murder charge for eight months before being charged with culpable homicide.