A MOTORIST rammed a delivery courier’s van during a car chase - then hit it with a hammer, York Crown Court heard.

Zac Sharp, 25, mistakenly thought the courier was the man who had been eyeing an underage girl, said Adam Walker, prosecuting.

When he saw the delivery driver in Church Fenton near Selby, he got a tyre iron out of his Mercedes.

The courier drove off and Sharp pursued him, driving close behind him.

During the chase, the 25-year-old man rammed the van before overtaking it and forcing it to stop.

Then he took the hammer out of his car and hit the side of the van before the courier was able to escape.

The delivery driver told police later his employers stopped his wages to pay for the £1,600 damage to the van caused by the incident and that this had caused him such financial hardship he had had to borrow from friends and family and go into debt.

Sharp, of Maypole Mews, Barwick-in-Elmet, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, carrying an offensive weapon and criminal damage.

Judge Simon Hickey told Sharp: “You put two and two together and made five.”

In the year since the incident, Sharp had not committed any other offence, and he was a hard-working man.

“You are not a risk to the public. It was a one-off,” the judge said.

He suspended a 10-month prison sentence for 18 months on condition Sharp does 150 hours’ unpaid work.

He also banned Sharp from driving for 12 months and ordered him to take an extended driving test at the end of his ban before driving alone again.

The judge described the company’s decision to stop the courier’s wages as “bizarre” adding that the damage to the van was nothing to do with the courier.

“He is a completely innocent man. He will be compensated,” the judge said.

He ordered that Sharp pay compensation of £1,800 to the courier to cover the money stopped from his wages, plus £200 for the upset and distress he was caused.

The money will be paid via the court system direct to the courier.

Mr Walker said the courier was going about his business when Sharp saw him on July 20, 2021.

By the time the incident came to an end, the courier had managed to get part of Sharp’s registration number and police tracked the 25-year-old down.

His Mercedes was damaged in a way consistent with him having rammed the van.

When interviewed by police he accepted he may have made a mistaken identification but didn’t accept that he had been driving dangerously.

Charlotte Noddings, for Sharp, gave no mitigation after the judge announced he would suspend the prison sentence.