ICE cream turf wars erupted at the height of last summer as a young rival vendor assaulted veteran Mario Bretti over control of the Ridgeway Farm building site.

Mario, 64, who has been selling ice cream around Swindon since 1972, was accosted by 36-year-old Andrea Trunfio after the younger man intercepted him in his van on Thamesdown Drive at around 2pm on July 22.

The pair had both been selling ice cream to builders at the development, and the spat over the patch climaxed when Trunfio blocked Mario with his ice cream van, punching him through the window and hurling abuse at him in Italian.

A trial at Chippenham Magistrates’ Court yesterday found Trunfio, of Edinburgh Street, guilty of one count of common assault. Trunfio protested his innocence, claiming Mario had beckoned him over before trapping his arm in the window of his van.

Giving evidence, Mario said Trunfio had followed him, at speed, along Thamesdown Drive before cutting him off at the junction with Purton Road.

“He came up to the van and started punching me, saying he had claimed the building site as his area. I was selling there because Sparcells is my area. He was very aggressive and started punching me several times, and said he would come to my home.”

Mario said he felt very dizzy and frightened, and went straight to the police station while Trunfio did a U-turn and drove off in the direction of Moredon.

Phillip Hall, defending Trunfio, insisted there had been prior arrangements that Mario would no longer sell at the building site.

Sarah Miller, a witness two cars behind the incident, told the court she saw Trunfio driving frantically before jumping around “like Tigger” and throwing punches through the window of Mario’s van. She said: “I saw him getting out and coming to the one at the back. He didn’t look particularly angry until he tried to open the door of the second van. He was jumping up and down and trying to go after the other ice cream man. I could see his fists going in and out of the window.”

"He got back into his van and carried out shouting through his serving hatch."

"I was quite shocked, and very disappointed. I thought if my children had seen that they would have been scared to go to an ice cream van again."

Trunfio, with the help of an interpreter, told the court he had been an ice cream man in Swindon for 10 years and had been selling at the building site for two or three months before the incident. He claimed he had seen Mario at the site that day, and the older man beckoned him to follow.

When they pulled up at the traffic lights, Trunfio said, Mario grabbed his arm, rolling up the window to trap it, and threatened to kill his family and burn down his van if he went back to the site.

Logs confirm Trunfio had called 999 a number of times after the incident, but police responded with a crime reference number.

“In our community, usually each person has an area,” he said. “There is no law to say you can’t go to certain places.”

“I am not a violent person, but when you have an agreement and someone breaks it, it is like you are being taken for a ride. I am an easy person and do not argue with people. If I had hit him it would have been like hitting my own father.”

Trunfio was given a 12-month community order with 80 hours of unpaid work, £650 courts costs, a £60 victim surcharge, and £75 compensation for Mario.