A NIGHTMARE neighbour has been jailed for going on a wrecking spree in a quiet village street in which he attacked two residents and damaged five cars.

Benjamin Carr was drunk when he had an argument with one neighbour who he attacked twice before turning his rage on a second who tried to intervene.

He ripped the wing mirror off one car, battered its bonnet with a ladder, and smashed a £1,000 set of double-glazed doors with a rock.

He then got into his own Mercedes car and tried to drive off. He hit two more cars, tried to reverse back at their owners as they remonstrated with him, but missed them and hit a third vehicle.

The mayhem unfolded in Meadowside Road, Sandford, near Crediton on August 10 last year and left one car written off and two more with serious damage.

He eventually succeeded in driving away but was arrested later in Cheriton Fitzpaine.

He should not have been driving at all because he had been disqualified for drink driving just 10 days earlier.

Carr went on to phone one of the victims a month later and threaten to recruit a group of mates who would break down his front door with a scaffolding pole.

Exeter Crown Court was told that he was suffering from depression and poor mental health at the time.

One of his victims, a 72-year-old pensioner, said Carr had ruined his life and he now wants to move away.

Carr, aged 50, of Meadowside Road, Sandford, admitted dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and uninsured, assault causing actual bodily harm, battery, two counts of criminal damage and harassment.

He was jailed for two years by Recorder Mr Richard Paige and made subject of a restraining order banning further contact with the victims, even though he will be able to return home when he is freed. He was banned from driving until 2027.

The judge told him: “You embarked on what the prosecution described as a rampage during which your judgment was impaired by alcohol. Your dangerous driving was deliberate.

“You reversed at speed, hitting a car and narrowly missing a pedestrian and having already hit other cars. Your driving was impaired by alcohol and you were driving at an inappropriate speed.”

Mr Tom Bradnock, prosecuting, said Carr started a rampage of crime by attacking a 72-year-old neighbour who he had been on bad terms with for some time.

He attacked him on his doorstep, left for just long enough to rip the wing mirror off his Dacia car and then went back to punch him in the face.

Another neighbour intervened and was attacked but managed to overpower Carr, who responded by going home and fetching a ladder which he hit against the Dacia before leaning it against the wall of another house.

He took it home and returned with a large rock which he smashed through the kitchen doors of a house, causing more than £1,000 damage. He then got into his Mercedes car and tried to drive off at speed.

He lost control and hit a Ford C-Max and a Honda. By now many residents had come out of their homes and the owner of one of the damaged cars remonstrated with Carr, leading to him reversing at him and a friend who was with him in the street.

Carr lost control once again, narrowly missed them, and instead hit a Mitsubishi pick-up truck, which suffered a further £2,000 worth of damage. He drove off and was traced by police and arrested at Cheriton Fitzpaine.

Miss Felicity Payne, defending, said Carr has been in custody since December, when he was arrested for making a threatening call to one of the victims. She said he is keen to address his problems of depression and substance abuse and would be able to do this under a suspended sentence.