A car salesman is awaiting sentencing in court after fighting colleagues at the Ron Brooks Suzuki car dealership and threatening to return with a shotgun.

One colleague was shoved and punched in the mouth and another was smacked in the head, breaking his glasses, when sales executive John Thompson had "a breakdown" and started the brawl at the car dealership on Oak Tree Lane in Mansfield last month.

Mansfield Magistrates Court was told that Thompson, a father of two, became irate following "ongoing banter" about a Liverpool FC sticker on October 24, and lost control.

Thompson threw his company car keys at a sales manager and yelled: "Now I don't work here I can sort that c*** out and all his mates", adding: "We will go outside and fight like men. I will smash your f****** heads in."

After brawling with colleagues he shouted: "I will take you all and smash your faces in. I will bring a shotgun at 5pm." Staff were alarmed by a phone call Thompson then made asking a contact "What tools have you got" and one employee later said he understood Thompson had access to guns and he "was fearful of reprisals".

Thompson, aged 51, of Inkersall Green Road, Inkersall, was stopped by police on a nearby road but he resisted arrest, even when PAVA spray was used, reports the Derbyshire Times

In court, he admitted two counts of assault, making threats, resisting an officer and possession of cannabis, and his lawyer Donna Pursglove said he thinks he had a breakdown due to family pressures and the death of his father.

Sentencing was adjourned for reports.

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