A bar manager fending off a machete-wielding thief pulled off the thug's balaclava and came face-to-face with his friend and former employee.

Shocked Michael Hall wrenched the two-foot blade from his attacker and asked: "Jeff, what are you doing?"

A judge heard that Jeffery Hunt then calmly walked from the pub and disappeared for four years.

He was eventually found hiding under a bed in Brighton.

Mr Hall had to undergo surgery for a deep wound to his hand and was off work for three months after the incident at a village public house.

Judge Christopher Critchlow heard how late on the evening of December 12, 2004, 62-year-old Mr Hall was closing up the pub and was about to contact his head office with details of the day's takings when he heard a noise.

He looked out and saw a masked man with a machete. He later told police the man appeared to be "dressed in typical burglar attire."

The knifeman then approached him, slashing to and fro with the machete blade. As the terrified publican put his hands up to defend himself he sustained a serious cut.

He then managed to grab the machete and take it off the attacker before removing the mask and making his stunning discovery.

In a surreal moment, the pair then had a brief conversation before 33-year-old Hunt left JW Greens, in Twyford, Berks., and disappeared.

Martin Mulgrew, defending, told Judge Critchlow, sitting at Reading Crown Court, that his client had been in the middle of a turbulent period in his life when he was heavily drink and drug dependent.

His life had spun out of control after the murder of his brother in 2001 and the murder of his 17-year-old stepson, just a year later.

"That essentially sent this defendant off the edge into a spiral of drink and drugs," he said.

He added that Hunt, who claimed not to remember any of the incident, had since managed to stabilise his life without help and had settled down with a partner.

However, when he asked for the court to give his client credit for pleading guilty, Judge Critchlow retorted: "He went on the run for four years."

"That's one way of putting it," said Mr Mulgrew, "but his instructions are he went to live in Leicester.

"He was on the electoral roll, in his own name, he worked and he was paying income tax.

"It wasn't a question of him trying to evade capture. He simply moved to Leicester."

Hunt was eventually tracked down to Brighton and arrested by police on August 23 last year.

The judge heard that officers searched a flat in the city's Butts Road and found the defendant hiding under a bed.

Taking Hunt back to events four years ago, Judge Critchlow told him: "You went into the pub where you had been working and gave the 62-year-old relief manager, who you knew, an extremely frightening experience."

He said it was fortunate that Mr Hall had not been more seriously injured and he recognised the troubles Hunt had been through and the efforts he had made to overcome them.

"You have had quite a lot to cope with, it seems fair to observe," he said.

He jailed Hunt for five years for the one offence of wounding with intent, the shortest sentence he said he felt he could pass.