A firm has been fined £27,000 after a court heard how one of its trucks went out of control and smashed into a Bradford house.

The six-wheeled dumper truck, weighing 27 tons, careered backwards across a road and ended up embedded in the living room of a council house in Cheddington Grove, Lower Grange.

Miraculously, the tenant of the house was out at the time and the driver escaped injury in the accident earlier this year.

Tests later revealed that the truck's braking system was "grossly defective,'' the city's magistrates were told.

When the vehicle was jacked up clear of the ground all six wheels could be turned with the brakes applied, prosecutor David Robins told Bradford magistrate's court. The front brake fluid reservoir was empty and the rear was down to a minimum.

"Its general condition was poor,'' Mr Robins added.

T K Lynskey Excavations Ltd, of Kilnhurst, Mexborough, South Yorkshire, pleaded guilty to three breaches of Health and Safety Regulations and were also ordered to pay £3,000 costs.

Mr Robins said that in February this year the firm was sub-contracted to carry out excavation work on the site of a housing project in Lower Grange.

The truck was being driven up a spur road when its engine stalled and the driver was unable to re-start it.

The vehicle ran backwards out of control, across Cheddington Grove and into the house.

Solicitor Patrick Hargan, for the firm, said it operated 80 machines on sites from Carlisle to the south of England.

Drivers were ordered to thoroughly check their vehicles daily but the system had become flawed.

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