A MOTORIST who attacked a fellow driver and seized her keys on the unfounded suspicion that she had been drinking has been blasted by a sheriff for his “hideous” behaviour.

Terrance Kain forced the woman to pull over on Dumbarton Road in Clydebank before going to her window and shouting, “I can smell drink off you, you’ve been drinking”.

But when police carried out a breath test on the woman a short time later, a negative result for alcohol was found.

Kain appeared in court for sentencing on January 12 after admitting driving in a culpable and reckless manner which forced the other driver to take evasive action and put her and other road users at risk of collision and injury.

Kain, of Stanley Street in the Kinning Park area of Glasgow, also admitted behaving in a threatening or abusive manner towards the woman and kicking her on the body.

Fiscal depute Alasdair Shaw told Dumbarton Sheriff Court that Kain had grabbed the woman’s car keys and walked away with them after they both stopped at 7.25pm on March 9.

“The accused walked towards her and kicked her on the leg,” Mr Shaw said.

“Bystanders made their way across the road and asked the accused to return the woman’s keys. She got her keys back, but only through pulling them out of the accused’s pocket.”

The woman phoned the police, but Kain got into the pick-up truck he had been driving and drove off.

Kain, 58, also called the police, but by the time officers arrived, both drivers had left to go, separately, to the town’s police station.

“Tests were carried out and provided a negative result for alcohol,” Mr Shaw added.

Kain’s solicitor, Scott Adair, said his client accepted the woman had not been drink-driving.

“She had pulled out in front of him without her lights on,” Mr Adair said. “He flashed his lights, pulled alongside her and beeped his horn to alert her.

“She didn’t seem to take heed, and that’s where the suspicion, founded or unfounded, came from.”

Sheriff William Gallacher replied: “He may think he was entitled to behave how he did, but he had no entitlement to do that at all. This was outrageous behaviour.”

Mr Adair suggested the crime could be dealt with by way of a fine and a compensation order.

But the sheriff replied: “Frankly, I don’t think so. This is not just on the edge of someone over-reacting slightly. This was a hideous piece of behaviour.”

Sheriff Gallacher said he had given “serious consideration” to a prison sentence, but instead he put Kain under social work supervision for six months and ordered him to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work in that time.

He also ordered Kain to pay £300 in compensation to the victim of what he called “this terrible experience”.