An angry man threatened a neighbour with a piece of wood and a knife over noise problems - but picked the wrong man.

Geoffrey Balmforth picked on a totally innocent man when he lost his temper over the noise in a block of flats at Lockwood.

The complainant George Sebastian lived in a flat above Balmforth in Swan Court, Swan Lane, and had also suffered from noise but it was from a person who was living directly above him.

Mehran Nassiri prosecuting told Leeds Crown Court as a result of the problem Mr Sebastian had reported the matter to Kirklees Council and been asked to keep a log of any incidents.

On December 20 last year he was making an entry about the noise level when he was contacted through the intercom by an angry male.

Mr Sebastian went down to the flat entrance to be confronted by Balmforth who had a knife and a 2ft piece of wood. He was in a rage, shouting about the noise assuming it was from Mr Sebastian’s flat.

He grabbed him Mr Sebastian by the shoulders and prodded him in the chest with the piece of wood and waved the knife in front of him shouting: “Every day with the f..king banging, banging noise, always around 1 o’clock in the afternoon.”

He walked away but returned telling Mr Sebastian he would kill him if it continued, shouting: “I’ll come up there and I’ll f..king cut you if the noise doesn’t stop. You better watch out and look over your shoulder.”

The complainant returned to his home and called the police who found him visibly shaking and upset.

Armed police attended and confronted Balmforth, who was in drink in his flat. The piece of wood was seized but no knife matching the description was found. He said he could not remember what had happened and used the wood to keep his window open.

Adam Birkby, for Balmforth, said he had assumed it was the man upstairs who was the causing the noise. Since the incident there had no further problems with whoever was responsible.

Balmforth, 58, admitted affray and was given an eight month prison sentence suspended for 18 months with a 30 day activity requirement.

Judge Christopher Batty told him: “This is no way to deal with your frustrations. You had too much to drink and you just lost it.”

Had he used either weapon he would have gone to prison immediately. “I am satisfied you did not go with the intention of hurting your neighbour, fortunately while it was a terrifying ordeal for him he wasn’t physically hurt.”