A man threatened to ‘slice’ his neighbours with a machete amid an escalating argument over rubbish.

Andrew Doyle, 33, was living on Evans Street, Leigh, at the time when he began arguing with a brother and sister living nearby about the placement of rubbish.

Bolton Crown Court heard how on August 24 this year, this reached such a pitch that he threatened a them with a machete.

Katy Laverty, prosecuting, said: “It’s fair to say there had been an ongoing verbal dispute between the pair.”

Ms Laverty told the court how Doyle, who has 10 previous convictions for 20 offences, approached the pair twice that day with a machete, saying he would ‘slice’ them.

A victim impact statement read out by Ms Laverty told the court how terrifying this had been for the woman he threatened.

She said: “I’m very scared and feel threatened.”

She added: “I’m scared of this defendant as I don’t know why he is doing this to me.”

Doyle, of Crumpsall Avenue, Manchester, was arrested on August 25 and pleaded guilty to two counts of threats with a bladed article at Wigan and Leigh Magistrates Court the next day.

Julian Goode, defending, argued that Doyle deserved credit for having pleaded guilty at the earliest possible opportunity and claimed that his “mental and physical health difficulties” offered “powerful personal mitigation.”

Mr Goode admitted he could not ‘sensibly oppose’ the claim that Doyle’s crimes crossed the custody threshold but argued that he could still be successfully rehabilitated and may be better handled in the community rather than with a prison sentence.

Judge Tom Gilbart admitted that Doyle seemed to have ‘some insight’ into his own behaviour but said it would take ‘truly exceptional circumstances’ to avoid a prison sentence in a case like this.

He accepted that the threats involved ‘little or no planning’ but emphasised the fear that he put his victims in.

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Addressing Doyle, Judge Gilbart said: “You are recorded as saying, ‘you’re going to get it you!

‘I’m going to slice your face!’

He added: “These were threats on the street with a machete on two occasions on the same day.”

Judge Gilbart sentenced Doyle to 14 months in prison and ordered that the machete be destroyed.

He also hit Doyle with a restraining order forbidding him from contacting or going near his victims for five years.