Northants drug dealer chased men he had 'disagreement with' in a car before firing gas gun at the back window and forcing them off the road

Shortly after Hein Metrovich's drug courier Patrick Doyle was pulled over with £64,000 worth of cocaine in the boot and 24 cannabis wraps in August last year, 44-year-old Metrovich handed himself in.

But as well as admitting to running a drug dealing operation in police interview, he confessed to a separate offence, where he assaulted two men with a baseball bat whom he had first pursued in a frightening car chase along Doddington Road in Earls Barton.

He claimed to have followed the men following a disagreement at a nearby pub, at one point firing a gas gun at the back window and smashing it.

When the two cars crashed into a roundabout, Metrovich pulled out two of the men and beat them with a baseball bat.

Recorder Patrick Upward QC sentenced him to eight years in prison for cocaine and cannabis supply, assault occasions get actual bodily harm, criminal damage and possessing an imitation firearm.

The judge said: "I accept without your admissions there would be no case against you.

"Having said that you have pleaded guilty to very serious offences which must be reflected by a term of imprisonment."

Metrovich's barrister, Derek Johashen, admitted his defendant's frank admissions were "unusual," though he conceded his client had not given great detail as to how he came to be a drug dealer, or why.

But he said Metrovich was keen not to let his courier Doyle take the rap for their joint venture alone.

Mr Johashen, said: "Mr Doyle is a man he brought into this act and a man likely to face a serious sentence. Mr Metrovich didn't want Mr Doyle to miss his young children's upbringing because of his wrongdoing."

Doyle, of Sand Piper Way, Wellingborough, however was shown little leniency by the judge.

Recorder Upward QC sentenced him to six years in prison for possessing offensive weapons and for supplying cannabis and cocaine.