A Southampton window-cleaner has been jailed for carrying a knife when he went in search of a mystery man following an argument, a court heard.

Lee Wookey, 34, had been smoking outside his house when neighbours saw him arguing with a stranger.

Wookey went back inside and the man, who has never been traced, tried to follow him, breaking a pane of glass in Wookey’s door. Later, Wookey was seen walking down the road with a bread knife.

Prosecutor Simon Privett told Southampton Crown Court that Wookey’s neighbours persuaded him to come back to his house, but he then turned on the couple.

He threatened to pour petrol through their door if they did not tell him the other man’s address – despite the couple not knowing who the stranger was.

In mitigation, defence barrister Daniel Riley said Wookey had originally been trying to walk away from the argument, which happened in September last year.

The court also heard that, despite 21 previous convictions, Wookey had stayed out of trouble between 2001 and 2008 and set up a window-cleaning business.

Wookey, of Ludlow Road, had pleaded guilty to possessing a bladed article in December. He was jailed for eight months, to run consecutively with a 13-month sentence he was already serving.