Four men were arrested after a large brawl outside Kingston police station in the early hours of yesterday morning.

A group had left the Library nightclub, formerly Amagi, in Kingston High Street when they began to fight, according to police.

Officers, alerted by a CCTV controlller, ran from the station and used batons and CS gas to break up the fight.

No-one was seriously injured.

Three of the men were fined. Another was released without charge after apparently being innocently caught up in the fight.

They were mocked on Facebook. One commenter said: "What a muppets to fight outside of the Police Station!" Another said: "Just when you thought people couldn't be more dim."

Councillor Ken Smith, a former magistrate, said of the incident: "Whilst I think that there is a place for police penalty order I think that violent behaviour of this type is not one. A day in court would have had more effect.

"I doubt that the penalty order would have covered the cost of the CS spray ."

Penalty notices give police a way of dealing with low level disorder without having to go through the paperwork and effort of going to court but their use has been criticised for giving some violent offenders a "slap on the wrist" rather than a criminal record.

Instead of being criminally prosecuted they are given a fine of £60 or £90 and no admission of guilt is needed.

Police said the men given fines were an 18-year-old from Twickenham, a 20-year-old man from Hounslow, and an 18-year-old from Richmond.