Mansfield man wielded a golf club and steering wheel lock in 'awful incident'

Jonathan Pownall was one of three people involved in "a spur of the moment" incident in which a man was threatened and assaulted, on Gordon Brae, Berry Hill, on August 12, 2020.

On the same date he also drove carelessly on Nottingham Road, and was arrested after an off-duty police officer intervened, said prosecutor Abigail Hill.

Pownall, aged 43, has 29 previous convictions for 104 offences, which are mainly matters of dishonesty or driving. In 2019 he headbutted a security guard at Tesco in Mansfield.

Lauren Fisher, mitigating, said there had been no further offending since the incident and he has served 615 days on a tagged curfew.

"Very much to his credit he is now entirely free of class A drugs and is also off methadone," she said.

He was driving without insurance or a licence because he failed to re-apply for his licence after a totting disqualification, she said.

He needs a valid driving licence to continue working on a casual basis, delivering beer, Ms Fisher said, adding that he hopes to find full-time work as a fire-proofer.

Pownall, of Holmesfield Walk, Mansfield, pleaded guilty to affray, careless driving and driving without a licence or insurance.

On Thursday, Judge Stuart Rafferty QC told him: "You're lucky that time has elapsed since this awful incident, because if you or your co-defendant had come before me then, it's likely you would have gone to prison."

He said Pownall had been 'living a life that was pretty much out of control,' with more than half of it spent 'under the influence of drugs and committing offence after offence because of that’.

But he commended him for kicking drugs after 'a long and painful struggle’, and noted two of Pownall's partners had died.

"To lose one partner is unfortunate," he said. "To lose two is catastrophic."

He imposed a two-year community order with 25 rehabilitation days and took the 'exceptional course' of only endorsing his licence with four points, rather than banning him.

"You can now regard yourself as a proper member of the community, rather than an outcast,” Judge Rafferty told him.