A fight over a cellphone app ended with a woman locking herself in a car as her husband reached through the window and pinned her arms to the seat.
Rhem Allen Spicer admitted assaulting his wife of one year after the January 28 argument "got out of hand".
Spicer began shouting at the victim when she confronted him about an app on his phone.
The victim locked herself in the car to escape Spicer, but he put his arm through the open window and grabbed her by the forearm, trying to unlock the door as he pinned her arms against the seat, police prosecutor Sergeant Rachel Willemsen told Whanganui District Court. He also took her phone off her.
The couple have been together for five years.
The victim received a scratch on her forearm, which was possibly caused by the jewellery she was wearing, Ms Willemsen said.
Spicer, 29, has no previous convictions and is in full-time employment, defence lawyer Jamie Waugh said.
"A situation over a cellphone has just got out of hand," he said.
Judge David Cameron questioned whether it was the nature of the app that was the cause of the argument.
"This was very much a one-off," he told Spicer.
He convicted Spicer and ordered him to come up if called upon within six months.