A former Royal Marine today questioned the law after being fined by a judge for confronting a group of partygoers with a Beretta pistol and a baseball bat during a car parking row.

Falklands War veteran Ian Hearne, 37, said he was acting in self-defence when in October last year he was involved in an abusive exchange with four people after finding their car parked in front of his garage.

Hearne said: "I honestly believed it would never come to Court. It was a trivial incident blown out of all proportion."

But yesterday the company director, of The Locks, Bingley, was fined £1,700 and ordered to pay £325 costs after pleading guilty to affray.

Prosecutor James Keeley told Bradford Crown Court how Hearne went into his home after confronting the group and came out with a Beretta handgun and baseball bat.

Mr Keeley alleged that during the confrontation Hearne aimed the gun at the car and its occupants, but it was made clear to the court he only pleaded guilty on the basis that he waved the weapon about near the car and had not pointed it at anyone.

After the case, Hearne said: "They were obviously under the influence of alcohol and were very abusive to a simple request to remove the car."

But Judge Roger Scott told Hearne: "I think you got on your high horse in a quite unreasonable way.''