A RESPECTED North-East magistrate has resigned after being found guilty of a road rage attack on a 20-year-old woman driver.

Bob Farms, 67, from West Terrace, Spennymoor, County Durham, strenuously denied the woman's allegations, but magistrates in Lincolnshire refused to accept his version of events.

He has stepped down from his duties in the Sedgefield division following his conviction in Sleaford last Friday for common assault.

He had already resigned as chairman of governors at Middlestone Moor Primary School and is considering his future in other voluntary positions.

As well as serving as a steward at Durham Cathedral, he is one of Durham County Council's voluntary countryside rangers.

A former youth leader, he is a respected figure in the youth football world, acting as secretary of the Auckland and District Youth Football League and as elected youth representative to the council of the Durham County Football Association.

The conviction, said his solicitor, James Allen, would rob him of the reputation he had built through 40 years' community service.

Mr Farms had denied assaulting student Laura Allen in July last year. After an eight-hour trial, he was fined £300, with £300 costs and ordered to pay Miss Allen £100 compensation for loss or income and distress.

Magistrates refused to accept his version of the events which, the court heard, had left Miss Allen distressed and shaken and with scratches to her arm.

The Sheffield Hallamshire University student said she had overtaken Mr Farms' car after following it through a series of bends on a country lane.

Later, as she slowed to go through a village, she noticed his car coming up behind with headlights flashing.

Mr Farms overtook her and forced her to stop before approaching her in an aggressive manner, waving his arms and shouting, before grabbing the driver's door handle and forcing the door open.

She said: "I was holding the handle to try and hold it shut. He got angry, leant into my car and tried to take my keys out of the ignition." She later noticed that the key fob had been broken off.

Miss Allen claimed Mr Farms pushed his hands against her face and neck. She found scratches on her arm.

She said: "It continued for a few seconds then he seemed to back away. He just stood there, looking at me. I told him I was phoning the police and he called me 'a stupid bitch'."

She said: "I sat in my car in total shock, in tears, and phoned the police."

Mr Farms, who had been travelling with his wife Rita, said that Miss Allen had overtaken him on a bend, forcing him to brake and drive onto the verge.

He had later pulled round her car after it stopped suddenly in front of him and had gone to talk to the other driver, thinking it was a young man who wanted to apologise for what had happened earlier.

He said: "I was met by a torrent of abuse. Nearly every word was a swear word."

He denied putting his hands in the car or pushing Miss Allen and showed magistrates bitten nails which, he claimed, could not have caused scratches.

Mrs Farms told the court she had not seen the exchange or discussed the incident with her husband.

Magistrates chairman Jo Johnson said: "We found Miss Allen a credible witness who answered quite clearly and with no contradictions, even under cross examination.

"We did not accept Mr Farms' evidence because it was in parts inconsistent, he avoided answering some direct questions and some answers were ambiguous. Some of Mrs Farms' evidence was inconsistent with what her husband said."

Mr Farms declined to speak about the case last night.