A debt-ridden farmer was so furious with a bailiff who came to his home that he used a mechanical digger to lift the man’s van – with him still in it.

Victim David Steele feared for his safety as 51-year-old Anthony Halliwell confronted him in his farmyard, first using the digger to block his van’s exit and then using its bucket arm to lift it off the ground.

His bad mood continued even after the police arrived and officers had to use a pepper-style spray to subdue him.

At Carlisle’s Rickergate Magistrates Court, father-of-three Halliwell, who farms with his wife at Scaleby Hill, near Carlisle, admitted causing criminal damage to Mr Steele’s van as well as common assault and resisting arrest.

John Moran, prosecuting, said Mr Steele went to the defendant’s farm on the morning of February 15 to discuss increased monthly payments for a debt.

At first, there was no problem.

But after Mr Steele got back into his van he saw Halliwell “racing” across the farmyard in a mechanical digger with a bucket at the front.

First the digger bucket scraped down the side of his van and then Halliwell turned the digger, as if to block his exit from the farmyard. As Mr Steele began to turn around his van, the defendant drove at him from the side.

“The digger lifted my vehicle up off the ground,” said Mr Steele.

Halliwell then put down the van, reversed away, and raised the bucket up to window level as if he was going to drive again at the van.

Halliwell then angrily told Mr Steele: “I don’t want to ever see you again.”

After telling the defendant that he had merely come to the farm for a polite chat about payments, Mr Steele drove off, said Mr Moran.

The van sustained damage that cost £2,418 to put right, the court heard.

The common assault offence was prosecuted on the basis that when the defendant moved the digger bucket close to his van Mr Steele panicked and feared for his safety.

When police arrived Halliwell refused to go with the officers. He resisted so much that they had to use a parva spray to subdue him, said Mr Moran.

Mark Shepherd, for Halliwell, said the defendant felt embarrassed and ashamed to be before the court.

“Quite clearly he lost his temper. It didn’t justify what went on but Mr Halliwell was a man of hitherto good character. There was a long-running debt which was being dealt with through a collection agency and bailiffs," said Mr Shepherd.

“Mr Steele had been to the property a number of times before.”

The lawyer accepted that bailiffs had to be robust in their dealings but Halliwell had previously taken exception to how Mr Steele spoke to him and his wife.

He said the couple had a disabled 23-year-old son, who does not speak and has severe learning difficulties and autism. That son was distressed when strangers came to the house and that was why Halliwell wanted the bailiff to leave.

“He acknowledges that it would have been a frightening incident,” said Mr Shepherd.

The lawyer explained how in April, bailiffs returned to the farm and seized all of Halliwell’s dairy machinery and also sold some of the defendant’s land.

Mr Shepherd said: “Mr Halliwell has made the decision that dairy farming is no longer economical. They will now be livestock farmers only.”

District Judge Gerald Chalk noted the defendant’s previous good character, but said: “You have broken the law in a major way. It was deliberate behaviour by you, causing substantial criminal damage. It was aggravated because Mr Steele has in many ways what is an unpleasant job: he is a functionary of the High Court.

“To attack him attacks the entire system of justice. That’s why it’s a more aggravating feature. But there is substantial mitigation.”

The judge imposed a community order, with a 15 week 9pm to 5am electronically monitored curfew. Halliwell must also pay £85 prosecution costs and an £85 victim surcharge.

The judge added: “I hope we will never see you in court again.”