Farmer who flipped car off land to defend his home cleared of criminal damage

A FARMER who defended his home and property by flipping a car off his land has been cleared of dangerous driving and criminal damage.
Fourth-generation hill farmer Robert Hooper, 57, argued in court that an Englishman’s home is his castle, and he had been assaulted before he used his tractor to remove the Vauxhall Corsa last June.

Mobile phone footage showed how he used a telehandler with forks to lift the £16,000 car from the lane outside his farm in Newbiggin-in-Teesdale, County Durham, flip it, and push in on to its side on the road outside.
Shirtless passenger Charlie Burns, 21, who had been visiting the area that day and had drunk up to seven bottles of lager, was knocked to the floor by the vehicle’s lifting forks.