A MAN who accidentally smashed a rear windscreen of car he feared was going hit him and his dog was threatened with a wheel brace during an angry confrontation.

He was targeted by the driver's partner following the argument as he waited outside a veterinary surgeon.

Stuart Edwards sped into the car park at Tees Vets before grabbing the wheel brace out of his Range Rover and confronting the man in May last year.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Edwards' partner had nearly reversed into his victim when he banged on her window in a last ditch attempt to avert a collision.

Ian West, prosecuting, said the complainant had come to an agreement to pay for half of the repairs with the women minutes before Edwards arrived on the scene and brandished the weapon towards the victim.

He said: "He (the complainant) feared he was going to be hit and got hold of him close to stop him hitting it with it.

"He told the man that it had all been sorted and then he released hold of him."

After the defendant drove off the complainant called the police and Edwards was later arrested but initially denied doing anything wrong.

The 59-year-old, of George Street, Trimdon Colliery, pleaded guilty to possession of an offensive weapon.

Nigel Hedley, in mitigation, said: "It was the heat of the moment, a short outburst caused by the fact his partner's window had been broken.

"It's something that shouldn't have happened but it did."

Judge Stephen Ashurst told Edwards his behaviour was 'going to be a costly loss of temper' after he threatened his victim as soon as he arrived in the car park.

"For a 59-year-old man to get the wheel brace and start waving it about was very much not called for," he said.

"This has proved to be a very expensive loss of temper on your part and it's only good fortune that this didn't escalate an further."

Edwards was fined £750 for the offence.