A father and son who attacked a lorry driver with

A father and son who attacked a lorry driver with a hammer and axe in a terrifying ‘road rage’ incident have walked free from the Old Bailey.

Len Pack, 56, and son Ben, 23, rowed with lorry driver Alan Tomlin at a weigh bridge and when their paths crossed again in the road.

When Mr Tomlin parked his lorry in their way, father and son leapt out to attack his cab, smashing the windscreen and side window, causing pnds stlg 1,165 worth of damage.

The row began when one driver accused the other of cutting across him at the weigh bridge in Scrubs Lane Willesden Lane, north west London.

‘Its a case of what is sometimes called road rage,’ said prosecutor Mr Peter Lewis.

Ben Pack was furious about what had happened and onlookers had to intervene in the row.

The Packs left in their blue transit but came across Mr Tomlin’s articulated yellow Volvo again in nearby Neasden Lane.

Mr Tomlin parked the Volvo across the road to prevent the Packs passing, which again infuriated father and son.

‘Ben Pack got out with an axe and he went across to
the yellow arctic and he used that axe to strike the side of the lorry,’ Mr Lewis said.

‘His father had also got out.

At some stage the windscreen of the yellow artic was broken.

‘What was happening was both these men were really in involved in an attack upon this articulated lorry.

‘The driver’s side window was also broken.

Father Leonard Pack had a hammer and he threw it through the open window.

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Police officers arrived to diffuse the situation and both Packs were arrested.

Len Pack was then said to have lunged at Mr Tomlin who claimed the father called him a ‘black c***.

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Father and son, who live together in Chiltern Avenue, Bushey, Herts, were both cleared of affray and racially aggravated assault but convicted of damaging property.

The judge, Mr Recorder James Stewart, QC, gave father and son condition discharge but ordered them to pay for the damage to the cab.

He told the pair: ‘You know the pair of you were behaving quite appallingly.

But the judge said he was satisfied Mr Tomlin’s behaviour had sparked the incident.

‘Go away and get on with living ordinary decent lives,’ the judge added.

‘Otherwise you will be seeing me again and I will not be such a soft touch.

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As the Packs left the dock the judge turned to the jury and said: ‘I do not in any way dissent from that verdict.

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