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Dramatic footage has captured the moment an off-duty police officer wrestled a motorist to the ground, after he lunged at another driver he apparently thought was driving too slowly.

Video of the extraordinary row shows an elderly man reaching in through the driver's window and tangling with him on the A27 Sompting bypass in Worthing, Sussex.

He appears to try and grab at the driver as he is sat behind the wheel in a heated row until the off duty police officer intervened.

Sussex Police Detective Constable Seb Day saw what was happening and tried to calm the situation.

But the man can be heard telling the officer 'who are ya?' as he repeatedly resisted arrest attempts while bystanders shouted at him to stop.

At one point the man is seen trying to climb back into his Land Rover before he is forcibly detained by the detective, who brings him to the ground and restrains him.

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The man is heard saying he is struggling to breathe as he is held on the ground before another uniformed officer arrives at the scene.

The footage was filmed by a friend and colleague of the victim.

Witnesses claimed the man left his Land Rover to row with the driver because he was driving too slow in front of him.

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According to a court report in the Worthing Herald , the details of which have been confirmed by Sussex Police, the offender was named as Martin Perryman, 62, and he admitted assault by beating on the A27 Sompting bypass on October 3.

He was given a 12-week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, and fined.

He also admitted using threatening words or behaviour likely to cause distress and resisting a police constable, the report added.

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One witness, who was in the car, said: ''We were driving along towards Worthing probably going a bit slow for the t*** in the Land Rover behind, and next thing this angry man is leaning through the window yelling "c***" because we were going a bit slow."

"Fists are flying, with my guy trying to defend himself from the driver's seat.

"Then the angry t***** drops his sunglasses into the car, so more scrapping 'til he gets them back.

"Suddenly there's a cop on the scene, who happened to see it all go down whilst driving home from doing whatever cops do, and got stuck in, bless him. (He) can't believe he's a cop and kicks off."