A Birmingham wholesale flower importer who terrorised a fellow motorist in a road rage attack has retrieved his Aston Martin after the Appeal Court quashed a judge's order confiscating the £93,000 vehicle.
David Bye (46), of Bramley Road, Acocks Green, was jailed for eight months and banned from driving for a year after he was convicted last November at Warwick Crown Court of affray.
The trial judge also directed the sale of Bye's £93,000 black Aston Martin DB7 Vantage with a view to £15,000 of the proceeds being paid to the Crown under a confiscation order.
Judge Sir Michael Wright, at the Appeal Court in London, yesterday upheld the driving ban but concluded that the confiscation order was "manifestly excessive".
Violence flared in December 2003 as Bye was driving along Stratford Road, Hall Green, and became convinced that another motorist, Hernak Singh, was "cutting him up".
He pulled up in front of the other car, grabbed the motorist's keys and unleashed an onslaught of punches and stamps that left his victim bruised and stunned. As he left the scene he bellowed: "If I ever see you again I'll kill you," the court heard.
Sir Michael, who described the eight-month prison sentence as "eminently well justified", said it was not the first "road rage" incident involving Bye. In the past he had " assaulted another driver in similar circumstances and in a similar place".
Bye, a flower and fir treedealer, was only recently released from custody, having been incarcerated over Christmas, Mother's Day and the Easter holiday - the busiest times for his profession.
Sir Michael said the trial judge had intended to impose a "financial penalty" on Bye, but there had been no application for compensation for the victim before the crown court. "We have come to the view that the confiscation order should be quashed," he concluded.
