(Image: LDRS)
A FARMER threatened to slash the tyres of a dad taking his young daughter to a riding lesson, York magistrates heard.
Mark Firby, 61, told the father he was breaking the 5mph speed limit along the drive at The Hollies Riding School, said Antony Farrell, prosecuting.
The father said of the farmer in a personal statement: “It appeared he was on the verge of losing control."
Firby was standing in the entrance of the riding school’s yard and signalled to the father to slow down. So the father pulled up and wound down his window to talk to him, said Mr Farrell.
The father said he was in a hurry to get his daughter to her riding lesson.
Mr Farrell said that Firby produced a knife which he held so that the father could see and said: “If you move I will cut your ….. tyres."
Kevin Blount, for Firby, said the farmer had had keys in his hand, not a knife, but accepted he had made the threat.
The farmer had been on traffic control duty as the stables, run by his wife, were staging an event with 100 children in the yard, some of them on horses, and he was concerned that the father’s driving could put them at risk of harm.
The father should not have been that close to the yard as signs indicated cars should park further away and he was driving at 10mph, said Mr Blount.
Police had offered Firby the chance to avoid prosecution by writing a letter of apology to the father, but he had declined.
“He is a proud man. He didn’t feel he should have to apologise,” said Mr Blount.
Mr Farrell said Firby had told police if the father had apologised when the two had encountered each other, the incident would not have happened.
Firby, of The Hollies Riding School, Richmond, pleaded guilty to threatening to cause criminal damage earlier this year.
Mr Blount said the conviction could mean he would lose his shotgun as police would reassess whether he was a fit and proper person to hold a firearms licence and the conviction could also lose his taxi driver’s licence. He drove taxis as a second job as the farm did not bring in enough income.
Magistrates gave Firby a six-month conditional discharge and ordered him to pay £85 prosecution costs and a £26 statutory surcharge. He had no previous convictions.
Mr Blount said since the incident the father had been told he would no longer be welcome at the school and his daughter could no longer have lessons there.