A building-site foreman and two colleagues lied to investigators when a runaway dumper truck smashed into a council house in Bradford.

The 27-tonne six-wheeled vehicle, which was later found to have defective brakes, careered backwards across a road before ending up embedded in the living room of a house in Cheddington Grove, Lower Grange.

Prosecutor John Topham told Bradford Crown Court that luckily at the time of the incident last February the householder was not at home.

In August T K Lynskey Excavations Ltd, of Kilnhurst, South Yorks, was fined £27,000 by Bradford magistrates after it admitted breaching Health and Safety Regulations.

Mr Topham said at the time of the incident the dumper truck was being driven on the site by 21-year-old Lee Stables even though he had already reported a problem with the brakes.

After the vehicle had smashed into the house, police and Health and Safety investigators attended the scene, but site foreman Dean Miller claimed that the truck had suffered an engine fault and had begun to run down a slope on its own.

Stables, who did not have the appropriate certificate to drive the truck, and 20-year-old fitter Adrian Tate, confirmed Miller's version.

Mr Topham said a month after the incident the men were questioned again and admitted what had really happened.

Miller, 27, of Maple Street, Ossett, Wakefield; Stables, of West Street, Barnsley; and Tate, of Park Road, Wath-on-Dearne, Rotherham, pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice. They were each ordered to do 80 hours' community service and pay costs of £130.

Recorder David Robson QC said although a charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice normally resulted in jail, he had to look at the reality of what had actually happened in this case.

"Like lads on building sites the world over, when something's gone wrong, you panicked and told lies about it. Within a month that situation was remedied. You told the truth about it.''

Miller's barrister Desmond Rosario said he accepted fully that he was to blame for the lies being told and was full of remorse for doing that. He said Miller had been trying to minimise the adverse consequences for Stables after he was told he did not have the appropriate licence.

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