AN ELECTRICIAN who drove his car at another man and knocked him unconscious has been jailed for nine months.

Stuart Webb left Paul Ricketts with cuts to his head when he knocked him down in St Martin’s Road, Rose Hill, after pursuing him across Oxford.

Webb, 31, started following Ricketts on February 2 last year after learning he and another man had attacked his brother and stolen £2,000 from him.

Peter Coombe, prosecuting at Oxford Crown Court, said: “The defendant was on the telephone to the police at the time he ran Mr Ricketts over. He said he had seen a knife in Mr Ricketts’s hand. In essence he was suggesting he had no choice but to drive and strike him because he wanted to get away.”

He added Ricketts was later jailed for the attack on Webb’s brother.

Webb, of Acacia Avenue, Greater Leys, Oxford, admitted one charge of unlawful wounding. He denied a further charge of wounding with intent, which was ordered to lie on the court file.

Tim Boswell, defending, said: “This was not a deliberate hit-and-run attack with the car being used as a weapon, but simply a case of the car getting too close. It seems to me this can be correctly summarised as a reckless assault.”

Judge Julian Hall told Webb: “This is an unusual case. Your eventual victim was someone who had committed a very serious crime against your brother on the day in question, and you were pursuing him. At the same time you were pursuing him you were in touch with the police.”