A DRUG driver has been jailed for terrifying a female motorist who was trapped in her car as he stood outside it with an axe.

Michael Osborne lost his temper when he was holding up traffic in Torquay and the other driver tooted her horn to try to make him move on.

He got out of his BMW car and advanced towards her while making threats and then went back to pick up an axe from the back seat.

She could not reverse away because there was a car behind her and she was petrified he was going to smash her windows and attack her with the axe.

She wrote an impact statement which said: ‘He ran towards me and it looked like he had lost his mind. Then I thought ‘oh my God, he’s got and axe and he is going to attack me’.

Osborne was so heavily under the influence of drugs when police arrested him that they had to take him to hospital, where he refused a blood test.

He had previously been arrested with a double bladed Stanley knife when caught buying drugs. He went on to go on a two months long shoplifting spree across South Devon before he was finally held in custody.

Osborne, aged 41, of Batson Gardens, Paignton, admitted affray, having an axe as a bladed article and failing to provide a specimen of breath. He also admitted possession of a bladed article, possession of cocaine and cannabis, and eight offences of shoplifting.

He was jailed for a total of 21 months by Judge Timothy Rose at Exeter Crown Court, who also confiscated his car and banned him from driving for two years after his release.

He told him: ‘The most serious incident was the affray, which was an utterly dreadful incident when you were obviously intoxicated and as a result of utterly losing your temper, you went virtually berserk in the street.

‘This was a road rage incident and that is an aggravating feature. You protested vociferously and the other driver felt rightly threatened while trapped in her car.’

Mr Sam Wysocki, prosecuting, said Osborne was first arrested on November 5, 2020, when police saw a woman passenger in his car smoking a crack pipe. He had £200 cash, small amounts of cocaine and cannabis, and a Stanley knife which had two parallel blades.

The affray happened on November 23 last year, two days before Osborne was due in court for the earlier offences, when his BMW blocked traffic in Hoxton Road, Torquay, as he waited for a woman passenger who was making deliveries to nearby properties.

He ended up getting out of his car to threaten the female driver behind him before getting out the axe and advancing towards her with it raised, only stopping just before she reached his car.

He was released on bail and spent two months shoplifting large amounts of alcohol, clothes and a handbag from shops in South Devon.

Mr William Parkhill, defending, said Osborne ran his own IT business with an annual turnover of £150,000 until it failed during the 2020 lockdowns.

He began using crack and heroin after a long-standing relationship broke down and he found himself homeless and sleeping in his car. He is now addressing his drug use and doing well in prison.