Man drove BMW into neighbour's MIni in anger over broken garden fence

Jack Smith, 26, struck after first warning, “What’s happened to my house is going to happen to your house, I guarantee that”.

The incident happened in a Newbottle street, after Smith arrived home from work on Sunday, April 18, and finding the fence damaged, magistrates in South Tyneside heard.

Smith, now of The Green, Houghton, has been banned from driving for six months and fined after admitting a string of criminal offences.

Prosecutor Iain Jordan said: “The defendant came home at midday and the fence dividing his home from his neighbour’s had been damaged.

“The neighbour came out and the defendant lost his cool.

“He told him, ‘What’s happened to my house is going to happen to your house, I guarantee that’.

“He then got into a BMW and drove it into his neighbour’s red Mini, and drove off.

“I understand the defendant has now moved away.”

Mr Jordan said Smith had a criminal record but had not been before the courts since 2013.

Robin Ford, defending, said a pre-sentence Probation Service report into Smith’s offending recognised his contrition for his behaviour.

Mr Ford added: “It seems to me that the word that springs from the report is ‘sorry’.

“Unless you’re desperate to hear from me, it seems that the contents of the report are eminently suitable.”

Smith pleaded guilty to criminal damage to property valued under £5,000, driving without a licence and driving without insurance.

He also admitted using threatening or abusive words or behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

For the criminal damage charge, magistrates handed him a 12-month community order.

It has a requirement of 15 days of rehabilitation work with the Probation Service and 80 hours of unpaid work.

For driving without insurance, he was fined £120 and handed eight penalty points.

It means Smith, who already has six points on his licence, was banned under the totting up process.

He must pay a £95 victim surcharge and £85 court costs. There was no separate penalty for driving without a licence.