A pensioner used a garden fork to smash up the cars of four doctors, a court heard.

Victor Causabon-Vincent marched into his local surgery and told astonished staff they had stitched him up.

The 72-year-old former electrician left after allegedly warning they would have to watch out for the consequences.

Minutes later, doctors at the Ball Tree Surgery in Sompting discovered the windscreens and rear windows of their cars had been smashed, Worthing Magistrates Court heard.

Dr Jennifer Young described how she felt a loud thumping on the side of the building while she was with a patient.

She said: "It was probably something hitting a wall or a window. It felt something like how I imagine an earthquake would be. It was upsetting and shocking."

Dr Young told Judge Tim Pattinson how staff locked the doors and called the police.

When she went outside, she saw the front and rear windows of her car and three others in the doctors' car park had been smashed.

Cross-examined by Causabon-Vincent, she agreed she could not see what was happening in the car park as the blinds in her consulting room were down because she was examining a patient at the time.

Dr Paula Irving also agreed she could not see the car park from her first-floor room and did not know her car had been damaged until later.

Medical secretary Sandra Cockerell told the court she was on duty in reception when white-haired Causabon-Vincent, who is a patient, walked in. She said: "I noticed as he came towards the desk he was very angry."

Madeliene Reardan, prosecuting, had earlier said the incident happened at the surgery in Western Road North at about 9.30am on November 7 last year.

A warrant had not been issued for Causabon-Vincent's arrest at the time.

Jacqueline Sutton was driving past the surgery when she saw a man with "very prominent white hair" in the car park.

She told Judge Pattinson: "He raised a garden fork above his shoulder and smashed the windscreen of one of the cars.

"I saw him go between the cars and smash the windscreen of the second car."

She said she called the surgery to tell them what she had seen once she reached her office.

Causabon-Vincent, of Hillrise Avenue, Sompting, denies four charges of criminal damage.

He agreed, while cross-examining witnesses, that he had been angry when he went to the surgery. He said: "They had breached doctor-patient confidentiality by writing a letter saying I was fit to attend court without telling me about it."

The hearing continues.