The pair had gotten into a heated dispute over whether money had been paid into a mortgage account.

Aisoli Soli Tanuvasa left his father-in-law in fear for his life.

A quiet and contrite Tanuvasa pleaded guilty in Albury Local Court on Tuesday to being armed with intent to commit an indictable offence and resist police.

But he won’t be sentenced yet after magistrate Rodney Brender decided it prudent to have a pre-sentence report prepared to consider any possible alternatives to full-time custody.

Police said the background to the confrontation was that Tanuvasa was injured in a workplace accident back in 2009.

“As a result of this, the accused received a workers’ compensation payment. The accused is unable to work and his wife is his full-time carer.”

The injury involved him breaking his back, something further exacerbated by him contracting the brain inflammation ailment meningitis.

The court was told the victim was at home with his daughter, Tanuvasa’s wife, and Tanuvasa – plus the couple’s two children – on the morning of August 19.

About 11am, Tanuvasa became aggravated by the victim “as a result of a discrepancy relating to money being put into the mortgage by the victim”.

The pair kept goading each other before Tanuvasa’s wife began pushing him out the back door to stop the situation from escalating.

When she got him outside, the victim went out the front door and walked around to the backyard.

As they grappled with each other, Tanuvasa grabbed a machete next to the back decking and as he swung it over his head warned: “I’ll chop your f … ing head off you old bastard.”

Police said Tanuvasa was hostile to them when they tried to arrest the 42-year-old, who grabbed hold of one officer’s clothing.

Tanuvasa will be sentenced on October 10.