Two Dundee men armed with a fire extinguisher and a hammer chased each other around a supermarket car park.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard Alexander Paton had wielded a fire extinguisher and chased John Rowland, who armed himself with a hammer, around the car park at Asda’s Milton of Craigie store.
Depute fiscal Kirsten Thomson told the court there had previously been a road rage incident between the pair before they spotted each other again in the supermarket car park.
She said Paton’s taxi was parked in Asda when Rowland and his girlfriend arrived and exited their vehicle.
Ms Thomson told the court: “Mr Paton was carrying a fire extinguisher and made his way towards Mr Rowland with the fire extinguisher.
“Mr Rowland went to his vehicle and removed a hammer from his vehicle.
“They began a verbal argument some distance apart. Mr Paton started to chase Mr Rowland around his vehicle.
“They both continued to be aggressive and shouting at each other.
“The girlfriend of Mr Rowland tried to calm them down but they both continued to argue and at this point Mr Paton ran towards Mr Rowland and started chasing him around his vehicle and other vehicles in the car park.
“Mr Rowland and his girlfriend left the area and a number of days later Mr Paton reported the incident to the police.”
Gary McIlravely, defence solicitor for Rowland, said neither party had “showered themselves with glory”.
He said: “It was something that didn’t need to go anywhere but one of the accused went to the police and scored an own goal.
“In the initial confrontation neither party had been impressed with the quality of the other’s driving.
“Then when they spotted each other again the situation accelerated.”
Defence solicitor for Paton, Ian Huston, said his client had contacted the police after the initial road rage incident but nothing had come of it.
He added: “There was no collision just one complaining about the other’s manner of driving.
“When the police reviewed the CCTV they decided Mr Paton was as bad as Mr Rowland and so charged them both.”
John Edwin Rowland, 26, of Callender Gardens, and Alexander William Paton, 34, of Drumlanrig Drive, were jointly charged with breach of the peace.
They admitted that on March 26 at the Asda Milton of Craigie car park they conducted themselves in a disorderly manner by running around the car park in an aggressive manner brandishing a fire extinguisher and a hammer.
Sentencing both men to 100 hours of unpaid work each, Sheriff Alistair Brown said: “It appears you both need to grow up.
“If any driver upsets you, you can either report it to the police or write the other driver off as an idiot and leave it at that.
“You don’t get involved in this kind of behaviour, especially not in the car park of a busy supermarket.”