A man who ran down a County Durham street with an axe has been spared jail by the "skin of his teeth".
Mark Lee, 42, was at his Newton Aycliffe home when a man known to him started banging on his door.
Durham Crown Court heard the defendant then picked up and axe before leaving his property on January 25.
Chris Barker, prosecuting, said: "The defendant ran out of the house with a hatchet type axe in his right hand.
"The other male ran away, the defendant followed that male on to the pavement at the front of the house.
"The defendant was seen to point the axe in the direction of the other male before shouting something.
"He then left the axe on the ground before heading to the male at the top of the street."
The court heard the police attended Lee's home on Walker Lane and provided them with CCTV.
He told them his home had been subject to numerous crimes in the last six months and told officers it was the same man on the footage.
Lee, who was on a suspended sentence, pleaded guilty to being in possession of an offensive weapon.
Giving him an eight-month suspended sentence, Judge Jonathan Carroll warned him there would be no more chances.
He said: "It is right to say, and I think it is important to record immediately, that on this occasion trouble came to your door and not the other way round.
"You were in your own home, minding your own business, when this man started banging on your door.
"You saw him on CCTV and knew exactly who you were dealing with and decided to take an axe and confront him, waving it in the air and making a threat.
"The one sensible thing you did do was put it down before going near him."
Judge Carroll told Lee, who has 20 convictions for 46 offences, it would have made "more sense" to not open the door.
He added: "You are escaping by the skin teeth only because you didn't go out looking for it, but it is the final line in the sand."
