IRATE husband Nigel Hands has paid the price of ramming his mother-in-law's car after being sentenced to nine months in jail.

The angry 41-year-old was returning to his marital home to collect some belongings when he saw a car in Cores End Road, Bourne End, which he thought was being driven towards him by his mother-in-law. But when he deliberately crashed into it, he was shocked to find his wife Sandra at the wheel, with his two children.

Hands, of Goring Road, Staines, was given the jail term and a 12-month driving ban for dangerous driving at Reading Crown Court on Friday after he was found guilty by a jury last month. Hands had denied the charge.

The court heard Hands had crossed into oncoming traffic, swerving towards his mother-in-law's car and writing it off in the collision.

Hands, who drives more than 40,000 miles a year in his job as a weigh scale calibrator, said he wanted to annoy his mother-in-law, Cynthia Kirtland.

Judge Mary Jane Mowat told Hands his behaviour had caused injuries and a lot of distress to his family.

She added: "Although you deny driving to hit the car you deliberately drove towards your mother-in-law's car on a public road where there were other vehicles in front and behind you.

"Perhaps the divorce unhinged you but you cannot take out your anger on the general public."