An enraged father-to-be who armed himself with a s

An enraged father-to-be who armed himself with a sawn-off
shotgun to scare off a love rival narrowly escaped going to jail
today Wednesday.

Gary Hart, 31, claimed he was driven to violence by years of
threats and intimidation by minicab controller Mr Rennie Smith.

Fortunately Hart was stopped by police before he got to the
office of Uxbridge Cars, where Mr Smith, 32, was working in the
early hours.

At the Old Bailey, he admitted having the firearm with intent
to commit affray on October 3 last year.

Hart, a lorry driver of Moorfield Court, Cowley, maintained
he never intended to use the fearsome loaded weapon on Mr Smith,
from Hillingdon, and merely intended to ‘frighten him off’.

The court was told the terror late night attack was the
culmination of years of bad blood between Hart and Mr Smith over
mother-of-two Ms Joanne Tridgell.

She had alternately lived with both men over the years but
finally decided last year that she loved Hart and moved back
into his home.

Mr Richard Sones, defending, claimed that her decision made
Mr Smith embark on a campaign of constant harassment and intimidation
of her and Hart.

She was nine-months pregnant with Hart’s child when he took
the law into his own hands and went to sort Mr Smith out.

He had been drinking heavily before being stopped with the
loaded shotgun near the minicab office in Windsor Road, Uxbridge.

Judge Francis Petre said there ‘seemed to be some element of
provocation’ but Hart’s reaction could not possibly be condoned
by the courts.

‘This was a man in a car, drunk, angry, and with a loaded
shotgun (for which he had no licence) at his hand.

It presents a
extremely dangerous situation.

‘
The judge told Hart: ‘Let there be no mistake about it –
people who go around the streets with a gun, such as you did,
in almost every circumstance go inside.

‘I have no doubt that the offences you committed are of a
gravity that inevitably calls for a sentence of imprisonment
because the danger from someone such as you, who had taken
drink and was in an excitable state, was so great.

‘
But he said the apparent provocation by Mr Smith allowed him
to take an ‘exceptional’ course and suspend the jail term.

Hart looked up at Ms Tridgell in the public gallery as he was
sentenced to 18 months prison, suspended for two years, with an
accompanying supervision order for 12 months.

ENDS