Top farmer rams doctor's car with 7.5tonne tractor in road rage row
Green Farmer of the Year award winner, 54, ploughed into a family doctor in his car with his seven and a half tonne tractor in road rage row
A parish councillor hailed as the ‘green farmer of the year’ has avoided jail after ramming his tractor into GP’s car during road-rage row.
Andrew Hollinshead who was presented with his green accolade at the Northern Farmer Awards in 2016, ploughed his 7.5-tonne vehicle into Paul Uglow’s VW Tiguan.
Dr Uglow, 48, had followed Hollinshead back to his farm near Sandbach, Cheshire, after the farmer ‘cut him up’ at a junction.
But when he stopped to speak to Hollinshead, the furious 54-year-old drove his green tractor straight at him. The VW sustained £13,000 of damage, while the driver’s side window shattered and cut Dr Uglow’s arm.
Hollinshead, who was honoured for using a wind turbine, solar panels and a hydrogen refuelling station at his farm, was convicted of criminal damage and assault occasioning actual bodily harm at Crewe Magistrates’ Court. He was fined £1,190 with £1,476 in costs – but avoided a potential four-year jail term.
Parish councillor Andrew Hollinshead, 54, (pictured outside Crewe Magistrates’ Court) ploughed his 7.5-tonne vehicle into Dr Paul Uglow’s VW Tiguan
Hollinshead (pictured on his Cheshire farm) was named ‘Green Farmer of the Year’ at the Northern Farmer Awards in 2016
Dr Uglow (pictured), 48, had followed Hollinshead back to his farm near Sandbach, Cheshire, after the farmer ‘cut him up’ at a junction. He was left with a gash to his right arm after Hollinshead slammed his tractor into the GP’s car
The road rage mayhem took place on the A534 at 6.20pm on July 11 of last year when Dr Uglow, who runs a surgery at Haslington medical centre near Crewe, was driving home from work having earlier collected his six-month-old puppy.
Prosecutor Simon Leong said the GP saw a tractor pull out on the right in front of him, which caused him to make an emergency stop. The tractor’s driver then gave the GP a ‘middle-finger salute’, he added.
‘Dr Uglow then made the decision to follow the tractor as he wished to speak to the driver about what happened. At the defendant’s farm, he rolled down the window, saying “Can I have a word please?”
‘But the driver of the tractor, who was about 50 yards away across the yard, went straight in his direction and rammed straight into the driver’s side of the vehicle where Dr Uglow was sitting.’
Mr Leong told magistrates Hollinshead had been revving the accelerator before he ploughed into the doctor’s car. After the attack, he then got out of the tractor and told Dr Uglow: ‘I will tell the police you pulled out in front of me.’
Speaking of the incident, Dr Uglow told the court how he had to ‘swerve’ out of the way of the defendant’s tractor as it pulled out into the road in front of him.
He said: ‘I hit the side embankment very hard, causing damage to the two alloy wheels. By the time I stopped the tractor had completed his manoeuvre and I could see the driver remonstrating, saying what I understood to be obscenities. He was saying “F*** off”, “You are a w*****r”, “P**s off”. ‘
The doctor said he followed Hollinshead – who he branded an ‘absolutely animal’ – as he was travelling in the same direction the GP was taking to head home.
Hollinshead picked up his Green Farmer of the year award in 2016 (pictured) for using a wind turbine, solar panels and a hydrogen refuelling station at his farm
Dr Uglow, 48, (pictured outside Crewe magistrates court) had followed Hollinshead back to his farm near Sandbach, Cheshire, after the farmer ‘cut him up’ at a junction
He claimed the enraged farmer kept slamming on his brakes as if ‘trying to encourage me to hit his vehicle’.
The doctor said he managed to overtake the tractor and planned to go home and phone police but he saw Hollinshead turn into his farm he realised they were neighbours, so he entered the farm by a second entrance nearer to his home.
‘I wanted to go to speak to him to tell him that he damaged my car and say “Let’s just exchange details in a civil fashion”,’ he said. ‘So I went to a different entrance to the farm. I didn’t know it was his farm until he went home.’
But before he could, Hollinshead smashed his tractor into the GP’s car, trashing it, spraying him with shards of glass, with one piece ‘lacerating’ his Dr Uglow’s right arm, slicing a four-inch gash into it, he said.
‘He kept pushing against the vehicle for what seemed like a long time,’ the doctor added. ‘He kept pushing and the crumpling sound went on for quite a little while. He saw me and drove straight into my vehicle at speed before I had any chance to get out.’
Hollinshead’s lawyer Stuart Flood said his client was ‘extremely disappointed’ at the outcome of the trial but nevertheless respected the decision of the court.
The solicitor said the farmer does a lot of work in the community and for charity, adding: ‘He is 54 years old and has never been in any trouble whatsoever.
‘He is extremely well thought of and highly regarded in the community. It is highly unlikely that this is a gentleman who will ever trouble the authorities in the future.’
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