Banned teenage paratrooper drove tractor over two cars 'monster truck style' after losing control on roundabout

Banned driver Adam Row, 19, wrecked a Volkswagen Polo and Fiat Punto and smashed into a house when he tried to take a roundabout too fast.

The soldier caused the devastating early morning crash after he lied to a farmer to become a tractor driver - and is now facing jail.

Smash: Banned driver Adam Row, 19, wrecked a Volkswagen Polo and Fiat Punto and smashed into a house when he tried to take a roundabout too fast

Row had taken leave from the elite Parachute Regiment after two years in the army after his dad died and his mum was struck down by multiple sclerosis.

The para went home to Hollesley, near Woodbridge, Suffolk, to help his mother and got a job on a local farm by lying about convictions on his licence.

Row was banned from driving in May for having no insurance and totting up points, South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court at Ipswich heard yesterday.

Devastation: Row drove a tractor over two cars after losing control

The serviceman did not tell his employer he was disqualified and the farmer told police he would not have employed him if he had known.

Lesla Small, prosecuting, said Row had been working on the farm for just three days when he tried to do a 20mph turn on the Snape roundabout at Tunstall just after 7am a week last Sunday (June 15).  

Mrs Small said: 'The front of the tractor started to bounce and became unstable.

Banned: Row lied to a farmer about being banned from driving so he could become a tractor driver

'It collided with a red Volkswagen Polo and the tractor did not stop.

'Mr Row didn't stop because he froze through panic.'

She added: 'He hit a house then a blue Punto car and then a listed wall.'

He said it was his error and it was due to a lack of experience on his part. 

Row admitted making a false representation on June 12 about his driver's licence when he knew he was banned because he wanted to get the job.

The disgraced soldier also admitted driving without due care and attention and driving while disqualified and with no insurance.

Michael Stephenson, defending, said Row could go back into the Paras whenever he wanted as he had taken administrative leave to help out his seriously ill mum.

Row said his father died in January.

District Judge David Cooper told him: 'It was a case of gross incompetence. 

'At least you did it to get a job and not for your own pleasure. I'm not promising you won't go to prison, though.'

Row was bailed until July 16 when he will be sentenced and pre-sentence reports were ordered.

Stunned Kim Rogers, 20, told at the time how she woke to find her blue Fiat Punto upended on its bonnet after it was crushed by the massive tractor.

Her shell-shocked boyfriend Adrian Smith took pictures of the catastrophic smash outside their house at Tunstall.

Kim, of Parham, said: 'I heard a pretty loud noise but did not think anything of it.

'But my boyfriend had to get up to go to work and he said there had been an accident.

'I walked out of the front door and I saw my car balancing on its headlights -what a shock to have on a Sunday morning.'