A road rage driver threatened another motorist by knocking on his window with a large machete and shouting at him. He then told the victim to get out of his car and fight, leaving him "afraid and shaken".
David Hoskin, 43, brandished the weapon after what he perceived to be a slight from driver Tomos Luxton in Cardiff on October 28, 2021. The defendant got out of his car and approached the victim's vehicle in Sloper Road, Leckwith, before pulling out a machete and using it to tap his window.
A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Thursday heard Hoskin made a number of intimidating threats with the weapon and offered the victim out for a fight, but Mr Luxton didn't leave his vehicle. Sentencing, Judge Matthew Porter-Bryant said: "This was something of a road rage incident with your victim faced with someone tapping on his window with a machete and shouting threats aggressively."
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Following his arrest, Hoskin was released and went on to carry out an affray at a house in Cardiff on July 1 last year while in possession of a knife. He had climbed into the garden of family in order to attract the attention of a friend who lived next door, but when the occupants of the house confronted him he became aggressive and had to be physically removed from the garden.
Judge Porter-Bryant said Hoskin returned with a group including his co-defendant Robert Bladen-Rees, 35, who were armed with sticks. The groups threw bricks at the house and into the garden and Hoskin threw a brick through a kitchen window. Upon his arrest, Hoskin was found in possession of a knife.
Hoskin, of Powderham Drive, Cardiff, pleaded guilty to threatening a person with a bladed article and possession of a bladed article but was found guilty of arson following a trial. The court heard he had numerous previous convictions. Bladen-Rees, of Ashfield Court, St Mellons, was also convicted of affray.
In mitigation, the court heard Hoskin had been to visit the grave of a former partner before the "road rage" incident. The court was also told he had been using drugs due to his father's ill health and had been caring for his father.
Judge Porter-Bryant sentenced Hoskin to a total of 29-months imprisonment. He sentenced Bladen-Rees to a 12-month community order, and made him subject to a 40 day rehabilitation activity requirement and a drug rehabilitation programme.
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