AN ice-cream war erupted into violence – after a businessman discovered a cheap product from Aldi was being passed off as his own luxury brand.

David Stevenson had acquired the Trillo Ice-cream brand from cornet king Neil Trillo, whose family brought it over from Italy before World War One.

He paid £500,000 for the brand, the Trillo name remained on the product and Mr Trillo was also still allowed to sell the ice cream from his van – provided he bought it from Stevenson and sold nothing else.

Stevenson, a local farmer, built Trillo ices up into a thriving business over ten years and also allowed its inventor to use his pitches in Whitby, North Yorkshire, to park his van.

But relations chilled when Stevenson was ordered by council bosses to stop loaning his slots to Mr Trillo – who then annoyed Stevenson by pinching his pitches on weekends when no council staff were on duty to stop him.

Stevenson, who paid the council £30,000 a year for the licenses, said Mr Trillo just made excuses when he complained about the poaching.?

And when Stevenson found out his rival was not selling proper Trillo ice cream, but a much cheaper supermarket brand, violence erupted.

Scarborough magistrates heard how Stevenson smashed his rival’s van with a crowbar in front of stunned customers waiting for ices on Whitby prom on a sedate Sunday afternoon.

Once inside, he took the day’s takings and yanked the wire out of the plug to the freezer containing the "inferior" ices, the court heard.

Prosecutor Martin Butterworth said: “It was stuff from Aldi and a cheaper mix from Bradford – and this impacted on Mr Stevenson’s reputation – when an individual purported to be selling his ice cream, when it was not."

Stevenson, of Trout Hall Lane, Skelton, near Saltburn, admitted threatening behaviour and causing £205 criminal damage to the stock and ice cream trailer.

He was fined £500, ordered to pay £205 compensation to Mr Trillo, £85 costs, and a £30 surcharge.

Julian Gaskin, mitigating, said the money was returned when police arrived and said Stevenson, who employed 17 people, had invested time in championing the local reputation of Trillo ices.

He added: “It is not right that another individual can usurp that by selling lower grade, lower quality ice cream and it was quite frustrating no one seems to be able do anything about it.”