A GANG armed themselves with weapons including a claw hammer, machete and a wheel brace to carry out a terrifying revenge attack on a rival's home.

The six men - described as “wannabe gangsters” - hid their faces with balaclavas and a machete was used to try and hack through a door as their teenage victim and his mother were inside.

Teesside Crown Court was told that Adam Todd, who was central in organising the attack, threatened to “slice up” and “chop into little pieces” the teenager in text messages retrieved by police.

In another exchange Todd and fellow gang member George Norman joked how the incident, in the normally quiet village of Appleton Wiske, near Northallerton, North Yorkshire, was like “something from a film”.

Prosecutor Graeme Gaston said the defendants resolved to finish a feud which began when one of their number, Jake Rollinson, kissed the girlfriend of the complainant and was later threatened as a result.

Mr Gaston said, during the incident, at about 1am on July 18 2012, a man wearing a hoodie began striking at the front door with a machete in a bid to break it down and shouted: “I am going to kill you”.

Bats were also used to smash the windows of a Kia car, belonging to the mother. The damage to the car and house was estimated at £6,900.

The gang eventually sped off, but a mobile phone was left behind belonging to Alex Ibbetson from which police recovered text messages implicating the others involved.

Ibbetson, 22, of Blackbush Walk, Thornaby, who was armed with the claw hammer and admitted violent disorder and criminal damage, is currently serving a jail sentence for supplying drugs and was the only member to be given an immediate prison term of 18 months by Judge George Moorhouse.

Todd, 21, of Broomhead House, Stockton, who admitted violent disorder and criminal damage, was given an 18 month jail sentence, suspended for two years, 200 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay £950 compensation.

His barrister Duncan McReddie said: “There was never any intention to cause any physical harm.”

Rollinson, 20, a welder, of Maria Drive, Stockton, pleaded guilty to violent disorder and criminal damage by using the wheelbrace to smash the car window.

He was given 18 months jail, suspended for two years, and told to do 200 hours unpaid work as well as paying £950 compensation.

The same sentence was handed to 22-year-old Norman, of Bowood Close, Ingleby Barwick, who admitted violent disorder.

Uzma Khan, for Norman, said he and the others were “naive young men acting on too much testosterone”.

Another man Tayla Sutcliffe, who admitted violent disorder, was described by his barrister Nigel Edwards as providing “back-up muscle” and remained in the car throughout.

The 19-year-old, of Maria Drive, Stockton, who hopes for a career in the RAF, was given a 12 month jail sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work and pay £950 compensation.

Warren Smith, 20, of Meridian Way, Stockton, who acted as a getaway driver, admitted violent disorder. He received a 12 month prison sentence, suspended for two years. He was made subject to a three month-long night-time curfew and ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work and pay £950 compensation.

* A final defendant, soldier Ryan Loughran, 22, of Hawthorn Avenue, Thornaby, who admits violent disorder, will not be sentenced until September as he is currently in Afghanistan.