A motorist who threatened another driver with a spanner in a road rage bust-up stunned magistrates yesterday - by asking for the tool back.

Denis Andrews protested to three JPs on the Darlington bench that it had been taken from him after his arrest.

They took advice from the court clerk, who said he had not been made to forfeit the spanner and should ask police for it back.

He then tried unsuccessfully to barter with magistrates over his punishment. "Ban me for life and forget the £200 - I'm not going to drive again," he said.

Andrews assaulted two police officers after he was involved in an angry confrontation with a man and woman as he drove home from a night out last year.

After overtaking each other several times, events came to a head when both vehicles stopped in Darlington and the man approached Andrews.

Andrews, 47, took a spanner from the boot and threatened to use it unless the pair allowed him to drive off, said David Bryson, prosecuting.

Police arrested Andrews on suspicion of drink-driving - but he responded by threatening to headbutt the officer who apprehended him.

Once inside a police vehicle, he lunged towards another officer but only made minor contact. At Darlington police station, he struggled with another officer, leaving him with a slight injury to his cheek.

Andrews, of Thorntree House, Cargo Fleet Lane, Middlesbrough, refused to give a breath test at the station.

Rory Todd, defending, said Andrews felt that the pair in the road rage incident had initiated the confrontation.

Andrews, he said, had no recollection of attacking police officers or refusing the breath test.

But he admitted the violent threats, failure to provide a breath specimen, resisting a police constable and assaulting two others.

Andrews was given a community punishment and rehabilitation order, and ordered to pay £100 costs and £50 compensation for each officer. He was also banned from driving for 12 months.