A MOTORIST was dragged from his car, kicked and punched before his attacker started smashing up his vehicle with a hammer.

Ross Appleby carried out the terrifying assault on Aftab Shah in the Baneswell area of Newport last month.

The city’s crown court heard how the defendant had claimed he had owed money to the victim’s son.

Appleby set upon Mr Shah on the evening of Wednesday, August 4 when he was in his Vauxhall Astra on Kingsmill Terrace.

South Wales Argus:

The damage caused to the Vauxhall Astra during the attack (Picture: CPS Wales)

Joshua Scouller, prosecuting, said: “The defendant pulled him from his car and he was kicked and punched.”

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Appleby made off with the victim’s car keys and the Astra was left blocking the road.

He then returned soon after and started attacking the vehicle by smashing the windscreen and rear window.

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The defendant was arrested and damaged a plastic screen put up for Covid-19 safety at the police station after kicking it when he lashed out.

Appleby, 28, of Caerau Road, Newport, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of criminal damage.

South Wales Argus:

Appleby also vandalised Mr Shah’s windscreen (Picture: CPS Wales)

He was cleared of the charge of robbery after the prosecution offered no evidence.

The car keys for the Astra were later recovered near the scene of the assault.

Mr Scouller said the defendant had nine previous convictions for 22 offences, including assault and criminal damage.

His latest offending put him in breach of a suspended prison sentence imposed in May for possession of a lock knife in public.

Gareth Williams, representing father of three Appleby, asked the court to give his client credit for his early guilty pleas.

The judge, Recorder Duncan Bould, told the defendant: “Mr Shah found himself being berated and then dragged from his car.

“He sustained an unpleasant injury to his head and he was then punched and kicked on the floor when he was incapable of defending himself.

“Mr Shah tried to climb up you in order to get away and other people intervened.

“In expressions of bravado, or showing off, to others you returned and said, ‘Look at what I’m going to do now. Look at what I’m going to do to your car.’

“You went to get a hammer and you used it to cause extensive damage to Mr Shah’s vehicle.”

Appleby was jailed for 13 months for the assault and criminal damage offences before the judge activated the defendant’s six-month suspended sentence in full.

He will have to serve a total prison term of 19 months and he was ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £156 following his release from custody.