Farmer counting the cost of house ram tractor theft

A farmer whose tractor was stolen and rammed into a house says the ordeal has cost him both emotionally and financially.

Ian Tate said the first he knew of the theft from his farm near Yarm was the police knocking on his door at 03:00 BST on 9 May to say his tractor was embedded in a house nine miles (14.5km) away in Middlesbrough.

The thief, 28-year-old Nathan Blagg, has been jailed for more than seven years, with Teesside Crown Court hearing he targeted the family home of a rival who had urinated on his father's grave.

Tate told the BBC he was thousands of pounds out of pocket, adding: "It's the way of the world at the moment, nothing is safe."

"Farming is a very difficult job now," he said, adding: "It's the cost of everything."

The court had heard Blagg and several associates went to Tate's farm at Kirklevington at about 23:30 BST on 8 May.

After trying and failing to take a large sprayer, they went into a barn and emerged with the Massey Ferguson tractor, which had a baler hooked to the back.

CCTV footage showed the tractor being driven at speed and frequently on the wrong side of the road on its way into Middlesbrough.

At about 01:30, the tractor was rammed through the front wall of a home on Priory Road which belonged to the family of Blagg's rival.

Tate said: "The first I knew of it was at three in the morning when the police knocked on the door and said it had been pinched and put in a house."

He said the tractor cost £38,000 to repair and he had to pay £1,000 a week for 10 weeks to hire a replacement while his was being worked on, while the baler had to be written off.

He also had to pay more than £5,700 in vehicle recovery and storage fees while police examined his tractor, Tate said, which was "absolutely ridiculous".

While the money would be covered by his insurers, he said his next premium was "going to be through the roof".

The farmer said the 10 tonne, 250 horsepower tractor and four tonne baler would have done some "serious damage" if the driver had lost control on the streets of Middlesbrough.

The theft "certainly had an effect" on him, Tate said, adding: "It doesn't belong to them, it belongs to me.

"It's the way of the world at the moment I'm afraid, nothing is safe.

"I just don't know how you can stop them."

He said he also feared what would have happened if he had encountered the thieves.

"You just don't know who's about," he said.

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