An irate chef grabbed a hammer from his boot after arguing with a 17-year-old cyclist.

Kenny Pinkstone, 33, was the front seat passenger in a car that passed the youth, out cycling with his dad near Abingdon on June 28 last year.

The teenager said he’d heard the car horn sound and saw Pinkstone had his hand out the passenger window, Oxford Crown Court heard.

He arrived at a pub in Frilford Heath to find the defendant outside a pub. Pinkstone was said to have confronted the youth, asking him: “Why were you riding side by side? It’s illegal, you shouldn’t be doing that.”

The boy explained that it was allowed. The older man began arguing with the boy’s father.

CCTV showed Pinkstone go to the boot of his car, retrieve a claw hammer then walk back towards the father-and-son pair.

The hammer was not brandished and Pinkstone’s mother, who had been driving with white car when it passed the cyclists, intervened.

In a statement read to the court by prosecutor Kellie Enever, the boy said he felt like he couldn’t move because he was in shock.

Christopher Pembridge, mitigating, said the incident had been extremely limited in duration and his client had not intended to use the hammer. He’d had the tool in the car as he was going to put up some pictures at the pub.

Pinkstone had been diagnosed with ADHD and on the morning of the road rage incident had not taken his medication. He now worked as a chef.

Sentencing him to nine months’ imprisonment suspended for two years, Judge Ian Pringle QC described the defendant’s behaviour as ‘completely unacceptable’. “I agree,” replied Pinkstone.

As part of his suspended sentence, the chef must do 120 hours of unpaid work, pay £200 costs and complete up to 12 rehabilitation activity requirement days.

Pinkstone, of Broadway, Didcot, pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court to possession of an offensive weapon. He had almost 70 offences on his record, although nothing for weapons.

The Highways Code says cyclists should 'never ride more than two abreast' and should ride in single file on narrow or busy roads or when going around bends. British Cycling last year called for the Code to be updated to say that cyclists can cycle side-by-side and it is 'often safer to do so'. They said the current rule was 'confusing'.