FORMER Gloucester City Football Club manager Mike Cook has been fined £500 and banned from driving for six months after a road rage incident with a cyclist.

In December, Cook, of Chalford Hill, Stroud, who is now caretaker manager of National League South side Chippenham Town, pleaded not guilty to driving his BMW X3 dangerously.

He elected a jury trial at Gloucester Crown Court.

But yesterday when he appeared at the crown court he admitted a less serious charge of careless driving on November 30, 2018 by deliberately forcing a cyclist off the road.

His plea was accepted by the prosecution and Cook was sentenced on the lesser charge.

The court was told that Cook had encountered the cyclist for the first time in King’s Street in Stroud and was still behind him at the junction of George Street and London Road.

Prosecutor Janine Wood explained to the court that when he did overtake the cyclist he drove very close to him and shouted at him.

But the traffic was such that the cyclist caught up with Cook as the road narrows on Union Street and with a Land Rover coming in the opposite direction had to brake suddenly in overtaking the cyclist.

Witnesses of the incident stated that Cook drove at the cyclist and was effectively using his car as a weapon.

Richard Dawson, defending, told the court that Cook was frustrated with the cyclist as he was in a rush to get home having been on a train for over three hours.

Judge Michael Cullum fined Cook, who managed Gloucester City between January and November 2019, a sum of £500 and endorsed his licence with six points.

But having six points on his licence already from previous motoring offences, Cook was classed as a totter liable to a minimum six months ban.

Judge Cullum disqualified Cook from driving for six months and ordered him to pay court costs of £85.