Businessman mowed down cyclist in his car before hitting him in the head with a hammer

Police were called after CCTV operators saw Paul Small, 33, then attack the man with a hammer before crushing the bike under the wheels of his Vauxhall Astra and driving off.

Small, who heads a property repair company, was angered by threats that had been made to his brother, Teesside Crown Court was told.

Nicci Horton, defending, said: “It was effectively a revenge attack.

”He accepts that it was an entirely inappropriate way that he dealt with things.”

Prosecutor Rachel Masters said that Small and the man were known associates when he went to Hartington Road, Stockton, on December 3 in his car.

Police were alerted by CCTV operators after a man on a bike came along and Small drove onto the pavement and hit him.

Small got out and walked towards the man and punched him in the face. Small punched him again a number of times and the man climbed onto the roof of the car.

Miss Masters added: “The defendant pulled him down and then he pulled a hammer from the boot of the car, and he hit him with it on the left temple.

”The defendant got into his car and he drove over the man’s bike before leaving.”

She said that when he was asked about it he replied: “Yeah, but he hit me first” and he referred to the man “having taken a weapon to his brother’s house”.

He had previous convictions for violence and having an offensive weapon.

Judge Paul Watson QC told him: “This incident was deplorable conduct on your part.

”Using a car as a weapon could have led to very serious injury at least.”

Small, of Lanchester Avenue, High Grange, Billingham, pleaded guilty to causing an affray, having an offensive weapon and dangerous driving.

He was given a 20-months jail sentence suspended for two years, a 10-month night curfew, 180-hours unpaid work and disqualified from driving for two years and until he passes an extended driving test.

The judge ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the hammer.