Swaffham man attacked garage worker in 'road rage' incident
A driver involved in an accident in Swaffham town centre was enraged by an onlooker taking photos and assaulted him.
Lynn Magistrates’ Court heard on Thursday that an employee at a garage in Lynn Road heard a loud screech of brakes and a collision at about 11.30am on August 13.
He told two other workers and the three of them went outside to find a damaged VW Golf and Danny Shane Mendham shouting abuse at a lorry driver.
“He said ‘this is all your fault’,” prosecutor Robyn Khan told the court. “He was then seen to run to his vehicle and drive off.”
The garage employee started taking photos at which point Mendham – who still had no licence following the completion of a ban – got out of the car, ran over and punched and scratched him.
The employee retreated to his workplace but Mendham followed and assaulted him and a female who tried to intervene.
Mendham, 41, of Regal Close, Swaffham, had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two counts of common assault, threatening behaviour, driving otherwise in accordance with a licence and having no insurance.
Mitigating, Tim Bartlam said it was “road rage by any other name”. Mendham knew he shouldn’t have been driving and had reacted badly. He was on a high script of Pregabalin due to compression of his spine and also anxiety drug Diazepam.
A probation worker told the court it was such a high dose of Pregabalin that she was surprised Mendham was functioning, let alone driving.
She said at the time of the offence he was using heroin again after three years being clean but was now engaging with drug support service CGL and the mental health charity MIND.
For the two assaults and public order offence Mendham was given a 12-month community order with 40 rehabilitation activity requirement days.
He was told to pay £50 compensation to each of the complainants and a £90 victim surcharge.
He was fined £120 and given six penalty points for having no insurance and there was no separate
penalty for the licence offence.
