A driver of an excavator was remanded in custody over the holidays after admitting to hijacking a vintage JCB and crashing it into a house and two cars while intoxicated, then proceeding to McDonald’s for a sandwich.
In a family dispute, Mark Holmes, 55, crashed the yellow heavy-duty vehicle into Paula Brown’s modern brick home in the Blackwood neighborhood of Gwent, South Wales.
Neighbors watched in disbelief as the massive digger repeatedly reversed direction before crashing through the home’s porch.
Workers in a nearby van captured footage of Holmes casually holding his phone behind the wheel of the JCB as he carried out the attack.
In November, Mark Holmes, 55, drove a vintage JCB to crash into Paula Brown’s home in Gwent as part of an ongoing family quarrel.
During the rampage, Holmes also attempted to flip Ms. Brown’s Ford Focus onto its roof by colliding with it.
A voice can be heard from the van stating, “Got it all on film for you, mate? Got everything on film. What the f*** is that f***head doing? F***ing joke.’
Someone else says, “Get his registration.”
After the destruction, Holmes was observed backtracking before leaving the modern estate and going to a McDonald’s.
Holmes allegedly struck Ms. Brown’s silver Ford Focus and blue Ford Fiesta while driving over the legal blood alcohol limit.
On November 8, Holmes was ultimately apprehended a mile distant after going to a McDonald’s drive-through in Blackwood, Gwent.
As part of a violent family rivalry, the Cardiff Crown Court heard that Holmes also assaulted Ms. Brown during the JCB rampage.
A group of adjacent construction workers captured the terrible incident that led to Holmes’ stay in custody until his trial on January 12, 2023.
It is estimated that Holmes’s drunken rampage caused approximately £50,000 in damages.
Holmes, of Penybryn, Caerphilly, has pled guilty to aggravated car theft, property damage, reckless driving, and drunk driving.
He rejected the more serious accusation of assault resulting in actual bodily harm, but consented to the lesser charge of battery.
Judge Recorder Mark Cotter KC postponed the sentencing until January 12, 2023 to allow for the preparation of pre-sentence reports.
It is in your best advantage to cooperate with probation, he stated.
In one state, a man attempted to confront Holmes as he resumed his spree.
Holmes was remanded in custody and issued an interim driving disqualification order.
A Turkish excavator operator went on a rampage at a coal mine in September 2021, causing major damage.
In July 2021, a German construction worker in a salary dispute caused approximately £400,000 in damage to an apartment complex with a big Volvo excavator.
In September of 2019, while intoxicated, Darren Verity used his excavator to destroy his employer’s £100,000 Range Rover and an adjacent HGV vehicle. The horrifying incident was filmed by the company’s CCTV system, which was subsequently aired before Bradford Crown Court before Verity was sentenced to 14 months in prison in November 2020.
»Digger driver risks jail for £50,000 drunken rampage in stolen JCB«