Two Milford men who arranged a showdown alongside the local football pitch to ‘sort out their differences’ have been jailed.

Forty-year-old Ian King, of Dewsland Street, appeared at Swansea Crown Court last week to plead guilty to a charge of driving his VW Golf dangerously on Marble Hall Road on September 26; whilst thirty-six-year-old Wayne Alan Whatling, of Prescelly Place, admitted possessing an offensive weapon in public and causing criminal damage to a car.

At a previous hearing held at Haverfordwest Magistrates Court, prosecutor Vaughan Pritchard-Jones told the court that the background of the incident which was partly captured on CCTV had seen Mr. King and Mr. Whatling agree to meet at the car park of Milford Haven United to ‘have a fight’.

The court heard that Mr. Whatling attended first at the side of the road next to the football club’s premises in possession of a wooden rounders bat, and when Mr. King turned up in his car to sort out an argument between the pair, Mr. Whatling was accused of smashing the car’s windscreen with the bat.

“It’s not then entirely clear what Mr. King is trying to achieve in his car as he appears to be attempting to hit the other male with his car when driving around the car park,” Mr. Pritchard-Jones told magistrates.

“The second part of the incident sees Mr. King driving out of the car park at speed and onto the main road driving like an idiot and narrowly missing another vehicle passing.

As you can see from the CCTV footage, the blue car that passes has to pull over or Mr. King’s car would have had a head on collision with it.

Mr. Pritchard-Jones explained that afterwards Mr. King had deliberately driven his car into the back of Mr. Whatling’s parked car on the side of the road, where a young woman and child were standing nearby.

Magistrates were shown the CCTV footage of the incident, which went onto further show the two males approach each other on the roadway.

“Fortunately they then separated before coming to blows - so I don’t know if they both realised they had bitten off more than they could chew,” added Mr. Pritchard-Jones.

On sentencing last week, Judge Geraint Walters told Swansea Crown Court that the the behaviour of both defendants had been ‘outrageous’.

The court heard that that trouble had flared between both men following an exchange of texts between them, with Mr. King accusing Mr. Whatling of having an affair with his ex-partner.

Both defendants admitted the charges against them when they appeared together in the dock with the court hearing that Mr. King had four previous convictions for seven offences to his name, and Mr. Whatling had seven convictions for 13 offences, including one for possession of an offensive weapon, namely a piece of wood with nails in it.

Judge Walters remarked that it was plain both defendants had ‘anger management issues’ and had behaved in an ‘outrageous’ manner, thinking that they could sort out their differences with ‘violence’ in public.

Both defendants were sentenced to six months in prison, with Mr. King also handed a 12 month driving disqualification.