Jailed: Martin Swabey, 23

A furious lorry driver who used his 17-tonne tanker as a ‘weapon’ to ram a terrified father and his five-year-old son off the road has been jailed for two years.

Martin Swabey, 23, lost his temper after Gary Sutton pulled out of a side road in front of him, forcing him to brake hard.

When he caught up with him at a roundabout several minutes later, Swabey swerved into Mr Sutton's Ford Mondeo, dragging it across the roundabout.

Swabey then continued to shunt Mr Sutton's car for more than 20 metres up the road until it skidded off into a tree.

He pulled 100 metres later, reversed back towards the crash scene, got out and told Mr Sutton: ‘That will teach you to pull out in front of me.’

Brighton Crown Court heard Mr Sutton's son was so traumatised he is still undergoing psychiatric counselling, 11 months later.

Swabey, a dad-of-one from Horsham, West Sussex, denied dangerous driving by trying to ram the vehicle, saying: ‘It's not in my nature.’  

But he was convicted by a unanimous jury after two hours of deliberations at the end of a two-day trial.

Swabey admitted making obscene gestures at Mr Sutton and shouting expletives after he pulled out in front of him on the A281 in Horsham in January last year.

Road rage: Gary Sutton's Ford Mondeo was shunted off the road in the attack

He said he lost sight of the Mondeo as it sped off but noticed it again when he caught up three-and-a-half miles later.

He told the court he never even noticed his tanker had clipped the Mondeo, dragging it until it spun round parallel to his bumper.

He claimed he could not see it as it was being shunted sideways in front of his cab.

He said: ‘I couldn't see it, I couldn't feel anything because of the weight of my tanker and I couldn't hear anything because I had Radio 1 on over the sound of my engine.’  

Deliberate: Swabey swerved into Mr Sutton's Mondeo with his 17-tonne tanker

However witnesses told how Swabey approached the roundabout at speed, pulled into the lane to the right of Mr Sutton, and deliberately swerved into him.

Swabey, who was carrying a full tanker of organic waste, said the first he knew of the incident was when he saw the carnage in his wing mirror and he reversed back to see if he could help.

He denied launched into a foul-mouthed tirade against, Mr Sutton, who was trapped in his crumpled car, or trying to attack the 37-year-old bodyguard, also from Horsham.

Mr Sutton and his son escaped serious injury.

Judge Anthony Scott-Gall also banned Swabey from driving for four years.