A FUMING gardener wielding a wooden mallet threatened to smash a car window after becoming frustrated by frequent and anti-social engine revving.

Joshua Brooks, 27, had become fed up with nuisance drivers roaring through the area around his home in Spurgeon Street, Colchester.

While working with a mallet in his garden, he heard a BMW engine revving and “lost his temper.”

Mallet in hand, Brooks confronted the driver in the nearby Farrington Close.

Katharine Houghton, prosecuting at Colchester Magistrates’ Court, said: “The victim opened the window and heard him shouting at him ‘that car is doing my f****** head in, it is anti-social behaviour, if it carries on I’m going to put this hammer through the window and you.’”

The court heard it was an “irony” that Brooks’ threat with the hammer had seemed to do the trick, with no further reported cases of loud engine revving in the neighbourhood.

Brooks was later arrested and charged with threatening to damage property, possession of an offensive weapon and using threatening words or behaviour.

He admitted all charges.

Lucy Osborn, mitigating, said Brooks regretted the “ugly” incident.

She pointed to several glowing character references from satisfied customers and said Brooks had never been arrested before.

“Two young men repeatedly drive their cars in the residential area where he lives at excessive speed,” she said.

“They spent a lot of time revving engines and it caused a considerable amount of nuisance to those who live in the area.

“He says on one occasion he was very nearly hit by one of those young men.

“Mr Brooks says he has tried to speak to each of them to try and resolve the issue in a more constructive manner, but this has fallen on deaf ears.

“On Sunday morning he was working in the garden when he heard car engines revving up and he momentarily lost his temper.”

Ms Osborn described a "remorseful" Brooks as a "quiet man who just wants to live with his partner, go to work and live in a peaceful environment."

She added: "He has lost his good name as a result of this.

"He would like to apologise to his neighbours, he knows he went about it very wrongly."

One of Brooks’ customers gave up a day at the seaside to attend court and offer her support.

When magistrates ordered Brooks to pay £629 in fines and court costs, she insisted upon paying £400 towards the penalty.

Speaking from the back of the courtroom, she said: “It is a measure of my esteem for this young man.

“I would urge not to have him convicted, it serves no-one for him to have a record – although unfortunately he will have a record I expect.”