JAILED: Driver smashes up own car after getting parking ticket
An angry motorist, who smashed up his own car with an axe after getting a parking ticket, has been jailed for two years two months.
Romanian-born Costel Mihai saw the wardens booking the empty VW, which he had left at a bus stop, as he came out of a nearby shop, a judge heard.
The furious 47-year-old rushed to the vehicle, shouted at the startled enforcement officers in his native tongue, opened a door and pulled out the axe with which he shattered the driver’s window and rained blows down on the bodywork, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.
As the wardens walked away he tore up the parking ticket before leaping into the battered VW and accelerated away only to return soon afterwards, coming to a stop close by them, explained Miss Joanne Barker, prosecuting.
They drove down Smethwick High Street followed by Mihai who repeatedly sounded his horn until he moved to the wrong side of the road, drew alongside them and threw a glass bottle from which he had been drinking beer.
Both cars pulled onto a nearby car park where the enforcement officers remained in their vehicle as he continued to hurl insults at them until police firearms officers arrived at the scene to disarm and arrest the defendant at around 6.30pm on July 5.
A search of the VW revealed two kitchen knives on the front passenger seat, disclosed Miss Barker.
Miss Kamalpreet Shergill, defending, said: “He does not seek to minimise his behaviour.
His reactions were extreme and unnecessary while his behaviour was irrational.
He finds it hard to believe he reacted in that way and cannot explain why he did so.”
Father of four Mihai, from Cemetery Road, Smethwick, said he had bought the elderly VW the day before the incident.
He had not been in trouble during the four years he and his family have been in the UK but was convicted of robbery and a sex offence in Romania.
The defendant pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, possession of three offensive weapons – the axe and two knives – and affray.
