A Suffolk man who caused thousands of pounds of damage when he “trashed” his former girlfriend’s rented house and rammed her car has been given a community order.

During the incident at Kelly Clears’ home in Wheatfields, Rickinghall, Lloyd Stringer had an “explosion of anger” during which he went through the house overturning furniture and throwing her belongings around, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

He also grabbed Miss Clears and pushed her on to a sofa before using his Peugeot to ram her Beetle and shunt it against the front of the house, said Peter Gair, prosecuting.

Stringer, 20, of Victoria Close, Thurston, admitted assault by beating and two offences of criminal damage.

He was given a 12 month community order and a 15-day rehabilitation activity requirement. He was also ordered to pay £8,320 compensation at the rate of £80 a week to the landlord of the property.

Sentencing him, Judge John Devaux said the incident had lasted for a considerable amount of time.

He said that Stringer denied using cocaine and alcohol before committing the offences and claimed that he was able to behave in the way he did without any stimulus.

Mr Gair told the court that Stringer and Miss Clears has been in a relationship which ended because she thought he was seeing someone else.

On September 3 Stringer went to her house at 11pm and the couple had an argument about him sending text messages to another woman.

Miss Clears then told him she had been ill treated by a male she wouldn’t name and as soon as she told him this he had “exploded”, said Mr Gair.

He said that following the incident Miss Clears had moved away from the area and had contacted the police to withdraw her complaint about the incident.

Mr Gair said the landlord of the property damaged by Stringer was claiming more than £12,000 for damage and loss of income

Hugh Vass for Stringer described his client’s behaviour as “outrageous” and accepted Miss Clears must have been scared during the incident.

He said Stringer had no previous convictions and understood it was totally unacceptable to act in the way he did.

He said Stringer was unlikely to reoffend and was in a position to pay compensation for the damage he had caused.