A TRANSPORT manager responsible for a four hour "road rage" incident which ended in him kicking a car, walked free from court.

Former BMW driver, Geoffrey Gibson, who did a similar thing nearly seven years ago, put the fear of God into his victim during a "concerted chase" and "completely lost control of himself," a judge told Burnley Crown Court.

Assistant Recorder Alan Booth said Gibson "lay in wait" for Mr Sean Nutter and it was only because Mr Nutter was determined to get away that Gibson did not get the chance to aim any blows.

But, he added, Gibson, a father and Round Tabler, was otherwise a "sensible, reliable, hard working and likeable chap," about to face an operation.

Assistant Recorder Booth said that in the exceptional circumstances of the case, he could suspend a prison sentence. Gibson, 31, of Taylor Street, Barnoldswick, was convicted of two counts of dangerous driving by a Burnley Crown Court jury.

He was given a two month prison sentence suspended for two years, and banned from driving for two years.

The court heard a chase around Barnoldswick started after Gibson was given a gesture by Mr Nutter and the two had an "interchange."

Gibson pulled up in front of Mr Nutter, did a handbrake turn and ran towards Mr Nutter's car.

Several hours later, Mr Nutter was in his car, with friends, when he saw Gibson coming towards him. Gibson, who had stopped people and asked if they knew the driver of a black Nova, drove nose to nose with Mr Nutter as he reversed.

Gibson - known to some as "Scouse," then kicked Mr Nutter's passenger door.

Roger Baldwin, defending, said there was no evidence that anybody was put in danger by Gibson's driving and nobody was assaulted.

Gibson, who had left the engineering trade because of industrial disease and was "ten per cent disabled," was a hardworking family man.

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