A FATHER and son confronted two men with a double-barrelled shotgun believing one of them had burgled an elderly relative, a court heard.

Mark Jenkins Senior brandished the gun throughout and even fired it as Kanwarpreet Singh and Levi Johnson tried to flee in Mr Singh’s Mercedes. The shot hit the boot of the car and the rear windscreen.

Maidstone Crown Court heard that Mr Singh and Mr Johnson had just pulled over in an isolated spot in Old Ferry Road, Iwade, near Sittingbourne, in January last year when Jenkins, 51, and his son 30-year-old son Mark drove up alongside in their silver Shogun.

Danny Moore, prosecuting, said Jenkins Senior took the shotgun out of the car because he was convinced that Mr Singh had broken into the home of an elderly relative.

Jenkins Junior was driving the Shogun, while Jenkins Senior was his passenger. While he was armed with the gun, Jenkins Junior was making threats towards Mr Singh and asking for the weapon.

Mr Moore said Mr Johnson approached in order to help his friend, and Jenkins Junior was heard to say: "I'm sick of black people. We've been burgled too many times round here."

Said Mr Moore: "He was referring to an aggravated burglary that had taken place two days earlier.

"Mr Singh was saying he had come from Sheppey and he had done nothing wrong, and didn't know what was being alleged against him, and it is right to say he had no involvement in any aggravated burglary.

"Mr Johnson then had the gun pointed directly at his face by Jenkins Senior, who then hit him in the face.

"Jenkins then told Mr Singh to get into the middle of the road while pointing the gun towards his face." The whole incident lasted two or three minutes, said Mr Moore.

Mr Singh and Mr Johnson then fled in the Mercedes towards Rainham. However, the defendants, who live in Old Ferry Road, caught up with them and as the Mercedes was driven away for a second time, the gun was fired.

“Mr Jenkins Senior has accepted that he discharged the firearm at this point," said Mr Moore.

A witness who saw what had happened followed the Shogun. She was eventually flagged down by the defendants, who asked if she had called the police.

The court heard that when she replied she had, one of the defendants said that was good because the others had robbed a 70-year-old man. Mr Moore added that when she asked how they knew that, the defendants said it was because the men answered the description of the raiders.

However, on Friday Jenkins Senior and Junior both admitted possessing the gun with intent to cause fear of violence.

The court heard that two teenage girls were also in the Mercedes. Mr Singh and Mr Johnson had originally pulled over on Old Ferry Road to play a joke on them by pretending the car had broken down.

Mr Singh was peering under the bonnet when the Jenkins’s drove up. The girls were not harmed during the incident.

Mr Recorder Michael Hopmeier adjourned sentencing for reports. The defendants, who have no previous convictions, were remanded on bail.