A menacing thug threatened to chop his girlfriend's mum into pieces and run her sister over during a long-running domestic dispute.

Ben Oliver, 38, also made threats to burn both women's houses down in what a judge described as an "unforgivable" campaign of abuse.

When Oliver was arrested in December he initially denied the allegations, instead insisting they were part of a racist conspiracy

But he pleaded guilty earlier this year before trial. Prosecutor Edmund Fowler told Canterbury Crown Court that Oliver threatened to run over his partner’s sister, smash up her car, burn down her house and throw a brick through the window.

He also told her mother he was going to “chop her up, threatened to burn down the house and smash her car up”.

Mr Fowler said: “He would sometimes phone her and say he would run her over and threaten to burn the house down.

“He also threatened to ‘smash her face in.’"

Judge Simon James said Oliver, of Benacre Riding Stables in Thanet Way, Whitstable, targeted women rather than men to avoid any repercussions.

"Your actions towards the women were, in my judgment, unforgivable," he said.

"You made serious and dangerous threats against all of them and your conduct shows you are a violent bully. You can treat women with impunity."

Defending, Philip Rowley said his client’s repeated threats - made between September 2017 and December 2018 - were “hollow”, given that they had not been carried out.

“The threats were clearly unpleasant; they clearly caused worry and concern to the complainants," he said.

“The repetition of threats add to the characterisation they are hollow."

In January 2016 Oliver was jailed for seven months for burglary, but the sentence was suspended for two years.

Judge James activated part of the suspended sentence and jailed Oliver for 16 months for two counts of putting a person in fear of violence by harassment.

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