A SPURNED dad lost control and caused early hours trouble after the woman he wanted to spend his life with found someone else and ‘dropped him like a hot potato’, a court heard. Burnley magistrates were told how Steven Michael Waring, 48, and Katharine Wilkinson, 47, were said to have been planning Christmas in New York, and their future together, when they went on a night out and she met another man. Conservatory firm worker Waring, who had also suffered the recent loss of his mother to cancer, couldn’t handle what happened. He went to Ms Wilkinson’s home in the town and caused a disturbance, which woke the neighbours, banging on her door, kicking her car, and hurling plant pots at the windows. The victim, who was with her partner, was terrified and thought someone was trying to break in. Waring, of Langdale Road, Padiham, admitted damaging five large plant pots worth £120, and a Land Rover wing mirror, valued at £50, last December 8. He was given a 12-month conditional discharge, and was ordered to pay £170 compensation, £85 costs, and a £15 victim surcharge.