DAD John Connors, who used his car as a battering ram while his pregnant wife and children were inside the vehicle, has been jailed for 14 months.

Connors, 35, of Thingley Caravan Park, Thingley, near Chippenham, drove his car with its wheels screeching at a Land Rover owned by a man with whom he had just had an argument at a burger bar.

Inside the Land Rover were the man's wife and two children aged four and four months.

Swindon Crown Court heard the trouble flared on September 23 last year at the McDonald's in Melksham.

Jenny Tallentire, prosecuting, told the court on Friday that Shane Thornton was going on holiday to Wales with his wife and children and stopped to get breakfast from the fast food outlet.

"As he was leaving and coming through the swing doors of the restaurant he accidentally knocked over a young boy, causing him to fall to the floor," she said.

"He helped him up. The boy was the son of this defendant."

Connors then swore at Mr Thornton and the argument ended with the two men exchanging blows in the car park.

The fight was then stopped by a member of staff at McDonald's and Mr Thornton got in his car and drove away. He pulled over nearby on Beanacre Road outside some shops .

Ms Tallentire said that as Mr Thornton got out of his car, Connors accelerated his Ford Sierra out of the car park, screeching its wheels, and drove straight across the road into the side of the stationary Land Rover.

"At that time Mr Thornton was standing out of the vehicle next to the rear door," she said. "His wife and children were inside.

"Witnesses say the car was travelling at about 40mph and it piled straight into the side of the Land Rover.

"Mr Thornton, to avoid being hit by the Sierra, had to jump into the air and he landed somehow on the bonnet of the Sierra. Mrs Thornton said she was terrified, the children were crying and very distressed."

She said Mr Thornton was so enraged he chased Connors down the road and attacked him.

When questioned by police, Connors said that he had intended to frighten Mr Thornton by 'skimming' the Land Rover. He told an officer: "I just meant to catch it."

Rosie Collins, defending, said Connors did not realise Mr Thornton's wife and young children were in the car and had not driven at him but swerved to miss him.

She said that her client was 'dazed and confused' following the scrap in the car park and may have been suffering from concussion as a result which made him act how he did.

After the incident she said Mr Thornton caught Connors and administered 'summary justice and summary punishment'.

She said that Connors not only had a wife and a number of children aged between 13 and seven to support but also his mother and his sister, who also had four children.

At an earlier hearing Connors pleaded guilty to dangerous driving.

Jailing him, Recorder Christopher Clark QC said: "Mr Thornton managed to jump out of the way but in his vehicle were his two children and his wife.

"Indeed his young son was in the rear passenger seat only a matter of feet away from where you struck the vehicle. It is pure chance that nobody was injured.

"You used your car as a weapon."

Earlier he said to Miss Collins: "Your client, in his rage, gets into his car and drives it like a battering ram."

The judge added: "I am being asked by Miss Collins that I should consider a non-custodial sentence. I reject that.

"I am persuaded here there is no alternative but to impose a custodial sentence upon you."

Connors was also banned from driving for four years.