A MAN who rammed his van into a hairdresser salon 20 times in an act of revenge has avoided jail.

Shaun McCann was behind the wheel of a van which smashed into the front of The Hairdresser in Old Road, Clacton, on May 6.

The 57-year-old had admitted criminal damage and dangerous driving at a previous hearing but was sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court yesterday.

Recorder Ian Evans sentenced McCann, of Dedham Avenue, Clacton, to two years in jail but suspended the term for 18 months.

He was also banned from driving for two years, ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work, pay £510 costs and to go on a 15-day rehabilitation course.

The court heard McCann had previously worked with salon worker Mr Drake, but Mr Drake had left to start up his own business, the Hairdresser.

Sentencing, Mr Recorder Evans said what provoked McCann was “some kind of rejection or jealousy or whatever it might be because Mr Drake had left employment of your business and set up his own”.

He said: “This was some kind of revenge”.

McCann stood by his claim he could not remember the incident but Recorder Evans said what he did was a “deliberate act”.

The court was shown CCTV from inside the salon of McCann driving his van into the window and then ramming it repeatedly, causing further damage inside.

The total damage bill was up to £30,000, the court heard.

Becky Owen, mitigating, said the incident unfolded on a Sunday afternoon when McCann went to his own salon to collect his van as it was due for an MOT the next day.

She said: “He recalls collecting his van, recalls driving in the general direction of the MOT garage and the next memory he has is driving left.

“He knows he shouldn’t have turned left, he should have turned right towards the garage but he has no further recollection of what he did until he was placed the ambulance.”

A passer-by had witnessed the smash and removed the keys from McCann.

He was arrested, taken to hospital but discharged soon after.

In a pre-sentence report, McCann had claimed he “blacked out” but Ms Owen said that phrase was actually used to convey he meant he could not remember what happened and the CCTV “speaks for itself”.

He had not been drinking and Ms Owen said, showed “genuine remorse” having written a number of apology letters since, including to the emergency services.

The court heard salon bosses are claiming compensation for loss of earnings and the landlord is also seeking damages.

Recorder Evans said told McCann: “I have been shown the CCTV footage and what I have seen looks like something you might more expect to see in a film or TV drama and not in real life.”In terms of gravity, it is the top end of the scale as acts of driving.”

He added: “What seems to be absolutely plain from the CCTV is what you did was a deliberate series of actions, a deliberate series of conduct in that not only did you deliberately drive into the shop but in the process, in a series of manoeuvres destroyed everything you could see.”

He described it as a “complete act of madness”., he said McCann couldn’t have been sure no one was in the shop at the time.

But Recorder Evans said he applied “a degree of balance” when deciding not to send McCann to jail.