A FURIOUS motorist battered another driver’s car with a metal baseball bat and tailgated him until he could take refuge at a police station.

Martyn Fisher was driving his Vauxhall Astra in Colchester just after 11pm when a man in a Ford Focus flashed his lights and sounded his horn when he spotted him performing a seemingly dangerous overtaking manoeuvre.

Fisher then turned his car around and began to tailgate the Focus driver before they came to a stop.

He started hammering the bodywork of the victim’s car with a bat which had been in the boot of his own car.

The frightened motorist called the police and then drove more than two miles from Ipswich Road, Colchester, to the police station in Southway as Fisher continued to tailgate and overtake him.

When officers arrested Fisher, 25, he was breathalysed and gave a reading of 60mcgs of alcohol per 100mls of breath. The limit is 35.

When Fisher was taken to custody he slammed the custody signature pad into a desk after a row about how much money he had on him, causing injuries to the hand of a police sergeant.

At a hearing at Colchester Magistrates’ Court Fisher admitted two counts of criminal damage relating to the car and the custody pad, possession of an offensive weapon, assaulting a constable and driving while unfit through drink.

Raph Piggot, mitigating, said Fisher did not usually drink alcohol but had done so because of a recent break up, and had been diagnosed as suffering from depression and anxiety since the incident on May 15.

He said: “The victim in the case flashed his lights which had annoyed him which is why he reacted inappropriately.

“The bat he used was in the car because he often goes to a field near where he lives and hits a tennis ball with his dog and his brother.

“In custody there was a dispute about his property - they said the amount of cash he had was much less than he actually did have.

“This was a day when he found out a long term relationship had ended.”

Magistrates were forced to ban Fisher, of Barrington Close, Little Clacton, from driving for three years because he had a previous driving offence in 2011.

He was also handed an 18-month community order with 250 hours of unpaid work and must pay £500 compensation to the Focus driver and £100 to Essex Police.

Magistrates waived costs and a victim surcharge for Fisher, who works in the maintenance department at a holiday camp in Mersea, because of his limited means and told him he had been lucky to escape a suspended sentence.

They also ordered the destruction of the bat.