TWO men were forced to leap over a fence after a furious BMW X5 driver hurtled towards them following a row.

Callum Hope drove the vehicle, which was on false plates, deliberately at the men on Bark Street, Bolton, on April 18, mounting a pavement and smashing into a low fence.

Robert Elias, prosecuting, told Manchester Crown Court that a witness believed Hope was intending to collide with the men.

The two men, who Hope had been seen arguing with earlier, ran off.

“The defendant couldn’t get his vehicle free of the fence and shouted to his passenger, ‘Get out, I want these dead,’" said Mr Elias, who added that Hope began to chase the men.

Town centre CCTV operators tracked Hope and when he was arrested by police in Market Street, he was found to be carrying £100-worth of cannabis.

“He was asked whether he had been driving the crashed BMW and he said, 'yes, my steering wheel just locked up and it’s gone straight into the street sign’,” said Mr Elias.

Hope, aged 28, of Queen Street, Little Hulton, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and possessing cannabis and also admitted offences, committed on other occasions, of causing GBH to his girlfriend and stalking a woman whose partner, he claimed, owed him £300.

Mr Elias told how, on March 4, Hope and his partner had been at Wetherspoons in The Printworks, Manchester, when they had a row, vodka was thrown over the woman, who was 12 weeks' pregnant, and he punched her in the face, fracturing her eye socket.

Hope took her to North Manchester General Hospital but the court heard that she did not attend follow-up appointments.

“She later told the police that her non-attendance was the product of the defendant coercing her into avoiding medical treatment so as not to provide further evidence against him,” said Mr Elias.

Matthew Howarth, defending, said drug addict Hope, who has ADHD and suffered a troubled childhood, admits he lost his temper when driving the BMW, claiming the men had threatened to stab his unborn child.

He was also remorseful for punching his partner. “He threw a single punch and was appalled. He knew immediately he had done wrong,” said Mr Howarth.

Judge Hilary Manley jailed Hope for 30 months and banned him from applying for a driving licence for 27 months after which he will have to take an extended test.