Rude awakening time ...

Rude awakening for couple as digger destroys their home
20:25pm 27th June 2006

Rudely awoken at 7am by the sound of a large engine on her driveway, Janice Gledhill peered bleerily through the curtains.

When she recognised the driver at the controls of a 14-tonne digger, she knew it wasn't a social call.

Enraged Robert Taylor, a tenant on the caravan owned by Miss Gledhill and her partner James Harvard, had been involved in a bitter wrangle with the couple over money.

Clearly, matters were about to come to a crunch. A terrified Miss Gledhill immediately phoned the police, but in response, Taylor, in his 50s, embarked on a terrifying 45-minute wrecking spree, causing �£500,000 worth of damage.

He not only took out the couple's entire house and contents, he wrote off two brand-new luxury cars and a police car as well.

He even began to swing the vehicle's lethal front bucket at the �£250,000 two-storey house and tore a hole in the wall before Miss Gledhill had time to make a hasty exit from the upstairs bedroom. A police car which tried to block his path was squashed by the bucket as if it were a fly being swatted.

Looking calm and unruffled, Taylor, a tractor driver, went about his business methodically. He ignored all calls to stop, even when police tried to use pepper spray from a distance. Finally, it was only when armed police stormed the cab that Taylor's fury abated. But by then, his job was unquestionably complete as the couple's house was reduced to nothing more than a pile of rubble.


Neighbour Vincent Frostick, an accountant, said he could not believe it when he saw man and caterpillar-tracked machine roll straight at the house.

He said: 'I saw the JCB driving up the road. A police woman turned up and tried to stop him but he just smashed through the car.

'He was very, very calm. He wasn't shouting or anything. He demolished the guys two cars in the drive by lowering the bucket onto them.

'I was amazed you could destroy a house so quickly. He was obviously a very skilled driver. 'For about 10 minutes he just smashed into the house, half of it is demolished, you can see all the furniture in the second floor. It was a three-bedroom house worth about �£250,000 but you couldn't live there now.

'The man who lives there just watched, he told his girlfriend to leg it. He has totally destroyed the house, I've never seen anything like it.

'After about 45 minutes about 12 armed police officers turned up. They pulled the guy out of the cab and then he collapsed. We gave the police some water and sugar to give to him in case he was diabetic.

'My mum was completely shocked, she walked past when it was happening.

'The house will have to be pulled down, there are only bits of it left standing.'

Miss Gledhill, 52, said: 'I saw who it was - I didn't go to the door, I immediately rang the police and when they came he told them he'd come for his money. But we don't really know what he means because he owes us money.

'I couldn't reason with him'

'The house was very quickly destroyed and the police told me to get out. They couldn't do anything to stop him - I couldn't reason with him.

'We are just devastated. It's not really hit us yet.'

Yesterday, a 20-foot high pile of bricks, timber, tiles, mattresses, food tins, DVDs and twisted bicycles stood outside the wreckage of the house. At the back, there was a clear view into a bedroom where an ironing board was still standing and clothes could be seen hanging in a wardrobe.

Speaking of his shock as he surveyed the scene, devastated Mr Harvard, 47, claimed the dispute was over a debt of just �£1,000 Mr Taylor owed him.

'He was completely calm and focused as he destroyed our house and everything inside we need to run our business,' he fumed.

'The police were holding me back for my own safety. They did try to stop him but the digger can turn a full 360 degrees and could easily kill someone.

'They used a pepper spray at one point but even that didn't stop him. I've never seen anything like it.

'My partner is lucky to be alive because he started wrecking the place with her inside it.

'And neither of us have children so we have a dog and six cats which mean everything to us. One cat is still missing.

'I can't believe anybody would do anything like this.'

Mr Harvard and Miss Gledhill bought the seven-acre Eastland Meadow campsite in Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex, for �£625,000 in 2002.

It was recently valued at �£2 million after they spent �£400,000 on improvements, including reducing the number of plots from 140 to 120.

All was apparently peaceful at the idyllic spot until Mr Taylor bought a caravan for �£36,000 last year and began renting a plot.

Mr Harvard said the relationship quickly soured because of 'multiple breaches' of the tenancy.

These included failure to pay for water rates, council tax, bottled gas and a patio extension as well as parking a second vehicle at the camp. The couple said Mr Taylor moved out a week ago after he ignored two recent letters asking to meet to sort out the dispute.

That was the last they saw of him until he returned yesterday in the hired Daewoo excavator.

The couple estimate the total bill for rebuilding their house, renting temporary accommodation, replacing their brand new �£30,000 Chrysler 300C and �£28,000 Chrysler Crossfire and loss of business will top �£500,000.

Mr Taylor is believed to have a long-standing heart condition and was taken to hospital after collapsing following his arrest.

Essex Police yesterday said a man in his 50s had been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and criminal damage.

'He will be taken to a police station for questioning when he is well enough,' a spokeswoman said.

:D :D :D