A SOLICITOR and his client were ‘ambushed’ by a nine-strong balaclava-clad Cheshire gang armed with baseball bats in a revenge attack, a court heard.

Bad blood between the Stokes and McDonagh families, both from the county's travellers’ community, led to a pitched battle outside Burnley Town Hall that saw a BMW rammed, masked men terrorise passers-by and frantic chases.

Prosecutors said workers feared for their safety when the mob tailed a ‘McDonagh’ car through the Lancashire town.

But when the attack ended in chaos, others gave a running commentary on one of the ‘gangsters’, enabling police to arrest him nearby.

Richard Howarth, prosecuting at Preston Crown Court, said the episode began when Patrick and Frank McDonagh were arrested over an alleged assault on Brian ‘Barney’ Stokes and Edward Stokes in Burnley.

In mid-January, 2012, the Stokes clan learned that Frank McDonagh was due to answer bail at the town’s police station.

And when Mr McDonagh left the station with his lawyer Sukhdip Randhawa, in a green BMW, he noticed fellow traveller Thomas Stokes in a white van in front of them.

The pair were going towards the M65 when they realised they had gone the wrong way. They did a U-turn but the van did likewise, said Mr Howarth.

Then as the BMW headed back to the town centre, Mr McDonagh spotted a burgundy Vauxhall Omega, driven by Michael Stokes, a member of the same family.

Michael Stokes is said to have gestured that Mr McDonagh ‘was dead’ so the BMW headed towards the police station.

But the Omega ‘rammed’ the BMW, forcing it off the road. Mr McDonagh ran towards a nearby police car. The burgundy Omega sped away and was found abandoned in Dyneley Lane.

A passer-by found hockey sticks and balaclavas dumped in grass. The court heard that a blue Omega car then entered the fray. It was driven towards the BMW but crashed into a van.

Four men spilled out of the blue Omega, armed with baseball bats or sticks, shouting ‘McDonagh, you’re dead’, said Mr Howarth.

But Mr McDonagh and his terrified solicitor fled, the court heard.

The armed quartet then fled, pausing only to dump balaclavas and gloves in the Leeds Liverpool Canal but as the waterway was frozen over, police were able to recover the items and trace three of the four suspects eventually arrested.

Michael Stokes, 46, of Bradfield Road, Crewe, Edward Stokes, 38, of Kettel Avenue, Crewe, Thomas Joseph Stokes, 31, of Nairn Close, Fearnhead, Warrington and Thomas Gerrard Stokes, 34, of Nixon Drive, Winsford, were all later arrested and admitted violent disorder at an earlier hearing.

After hearing an outline of what happened, Judge Simon Newell decided to bail all four until March 15 for sentence.