A KNIFE wielding man who accused a neighbour of tapping his telephone has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Bolton Crown Court heard how Kristian Mavrakis was behaving so aggressively in Ernest Street, Heaton, on September 25 last year that frightened parents took their children away from the area.

Mavrakis, aged 43, pleaded guilty to affray and making threats with a knife.

David James, prosecuting, told the court how neighbours in Ernest Street had become increasingly concerned about Mavrakis's unpredictable and aggressive behaviour over the previous year.

But then, at 8pm on September 25, Mavrakis began banging a kicking the front door belonging to his next door neighbour, Michael Dawson, accusing him of tapping his phone and interfering with his internet connection.

"It was a significant attempt to get into the property," said Mr James.

Mr Dawson prevented Mavrakis getting into the house and, putting the defendant into an arm lock, held him against a car parked outside until he calmed down.

Mr Dawson eventually managed to get Mavrakis back to his home and pushed him inside, but then the neighbour reappeared holding a seven inch kitchen knife.

Neighbours, who had been out in the street due to the commotion, fled back to their own homes and a parent removed children to a relative's house in another street.

"Neighbours moved back into their properties in fear that the defendant was going to carry out his threats," said Mr James.

Police arrested Mavrakis, who claimed that he had found information on Google which led him to believe his neighbour was interfering with his internet and bugging his phone.

Martin Pizzey, defending, said that Mavrakis had been suffering from a previously undiagnosed persistent delusional mental disorder.

"He accepts that which took place was inappropriate and wrong and he is sorry for what he did," he said.

Mr Pizzey added that, at the time, Mavrakis genuinely thought he was being persecuted.

"He now accepts that all he read on Google may not be true," he said, adding that Mavrakis is now seeing a psychiatrist and is on a new medicine regime.

Judge Graeme Smith said he accepted that Mavrakis's behaviour was out of character.

He told the defendant: "It is highly unlikely that your neighbour was behaving in that way, but even if he had, your behaviour was not justified on any basis."

Mavrakis was sentenced to eight months in jail, suspended for two years with the requirement that he undertakes treatment for mental health for 12 months and is subject to 20 days of rehabilitation activity.

Judge Smith also made a restraining order banning him from approaching the Dawsons' home, contacting the family or shouting at them.