A man was given a police caution for spraying a neighbour with his garden hose in a row over gardening.

Bob Cornwall was questioned for three hours and had his fingerprints and a DNA sample taken after he squirted water at John Tait.

The 42-year-old financial adviser was washing his car with his five-year-old son Reece when Mr Tait complained that he had dumped some branches in his garden.

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Mr Cornwall said: "He was angry, red-faced and shouting. I told him initially to go away and stop shouting but then he started calling me names in front of my son so I flicked the hose at him.

"Because I was cleaning my car the setting was only on a light spray so he was hardly drenched.

"I thought that was the end of it all. Within a couple of hours two officers turned up at my door and asked me to make an appointment for what I thought was going to be a chat."

The next day, Mr Cornwall, from Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex, went to his local police station.

He recalled: "I went along to Shoreham station where they arrested me and bundled me in the back of a car before taking me five miles down the road to Worthing police station.

"I even said to one of the officers, 'all I did was spray someone with a hose' and he replied, 'so you can confirm you sprayed someone' and tried to get me to sign a statement.

"In the booth next to me was a drink-driver and I had exactly the same treatment as him, full body search, fingerprints, mugshot and a DNA sample - the whole caboodle.

"Everything was incredibly formal, very stiff and serious, even though they knew all I had done was squirt a bit of water about.

"I was in disbelief that such pettiness had been reacted to with such prompt and firm action."

Mr Cornwall-a father of two, claimed he was pressurised into admitting common assault after an officer compared his offence to pinching a woman's bottom.

He received a caution and was given a lift home to tell his story to his wife Andrea, 42.

"When Andrea got back from work I said, 'you'll never guess what happened to me today' and she proceeded to laugh."

He added: "I was in an interview room with cameras everywhere. They took a photo and I had to give a tape-recorded statement as well, it took hours.

"The whole thing was a complete waste of time for everyone involved.

"They couldn't have thought I was a threat, because a policewoman gave me a lift home and we stopped off so I could pick up some milk. It was an amazing contrast to my journey there."

Mr Cornwall added: "'The only thing I can assume is that they are now able to tick a box on their statistics over crime reported and crime dealt with."

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