Man rammed tractor into house in grave attack feud

A man who rammed a stolen tractor into a family's home amid a feud with their son over a desecrated grave has been jailed for more than seven years.

Nathan Blagg, 28, stole the £30,000 Massey Ferguson from a farm near Yarm and smashed it into a house nine miles (14.5km) away in Middlesbrough in the early hours of 9 May, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The homeowners said they lived in ongoing fear of more attacks, while the farmer said his livelihood was hard enough without people stealing his equipment.

Blagg, of Addington Drive, admitted aggravated vehicle taking and damaging property being reckless as to whether life was endangered. He also admitted affray and stealing a pensioner's car.

At about 23:30 BST on 8 May, Blagg and two associates went to a farm at Kirk Levington in a Land Rover Discovery using cloned number plates, prosecutor Jamie Wilson said.

After trying and failing to take a sprayer, Blagg stole a red tractor with a baler hooked to the back from a barn and drove it off in convoy with the Land Rover, the court heard.

At about 01:30 BST, the two vehicles entered Priory Road in Middlesbrough, where Blagg rammed the tractor through the front wall of a mid-terrace home, the court heard.

The house belonged to the family of a man Blagg had been involved in a feud with, Wilson said.

Due to prior attacks at the home, the family had moved out shortly before the ramming but had not told anyone, the court heard.

Blagg and his associates then fled in the Land Rover, which a subsequent search of CCTV footage showed had scouted the house the day before the attack, the court heard.

The house was extensively damaged and would effectively need to be rebuilt, the court heard, while the tractor, which had cost the farmer £30,000 several years before, was written off by insurers for £17,000.

Recovering the tractor from the house cost £5,763 while repairing the vehicle would cost the farmer £56,000, Wilson said, with him also having to spend £1,000 a week to hire a replacement so he could carry on working.

In statements read to the court, the homeowners said they no longer told anyone where they lived for "fear" of being "violently attacked or worse".

They said the house had been their family home for 24 years and they had been left "living in constant fear" with their lives "turned upside down".

"This was not simply damage to property", they said, adding: "It has had a lasting emotional, psychological and financial impact."

The farmer said the "expense and hassle" of losing his tractor had "caused no end of stress" and had an "immeasurable impact".

"Farming is hard enough to make a living at without all of this," he said.

Blagg was identified as being responsible for the ramming after being arrested for crashing a Jaguar he had stolen from outside a pensioner's home on 14 May, Wilson said.

Blagg lost control and smashed into a lamppost while speeding along Middlesbrough's Riverside Park Road, totally destroying the car, breaking the ribs of a passenger and his own pelvis, the court heard.

The owner of the car, a pensioner, said he was left thousands of pounds out of pocket and it was "so frustrating" to be a victim of crime.

Scans in hospital showed Blagg had items lodged in his stomach and bottom, the court heard, which were subsequently found to be bags containing Zopiclone tablets, class C drugs which Blagg admitted possessing.

Checks of his mobile phone found the device linked to phone masts in the area of the farm and Priory Road, the court heard, while detectives ascertained its flashlight had been activated at the same time as lights were seen turning on on CCTV.

He had also searched online for the sentencing guidelines for criminal damage with intent to endanger life, the court heard.

On 21 April, Blagg was involved in affray after a red Audi was driven into him outside the Probation Service office on Borough Road in Middlesbrough, Wilson said.

Blagg tried to fight the driver, who got out with a knife before running away on foot, then threw punches at the vehicle's passenger before they also fled, the court heard.

In mitigation, Rod Hunt said Blagg being almost run over had been the "final straw" of the feud.

Blagg's rival had earlier posted a video on social of media of himself urinating on the grave of Blagg's father and brother, with the headstone also kicked over, the court heard.

Using "strange underworld logic", Blagg, a banned driver who had 23 offences on his criminal record including for robbery and burglary, felt smashing the man's house was "less serious" than running him over or stabbing him would have been, Hunt said.

The court heard Blagg's rival had also since been jailed for the Audi incident.

Recorder Paul Reid said the "appalling chain of events" seemed to have started with the "disgusting" desecration of Blagg's father's grave, for which Blagg was "rightly grossly aggrieved".

But the cost and distress caused to Blagg's numerous victims had been "huge", the judge said, while the ramming of an "enormous" tractor into a home was "utterly egregious".

Blagg was jailed for seven years two months and, having been deemed a "dangerous" offender, he will also have to serve a further two years on extended licence upon his eventual release from prison.

He was also banned from driving for seven years.

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