A man has been sentenced to seven years and two months in prison, with an additional two years on extended licence, after stealing a tractor and deliberately driving it into a house in Middlesbrough in May. The incident was part of an ongoing feud with a rival, Luke Lancaster, who had filmed himself kicking and urinating on the graves of the man’s father and brother. The tractor was stolen from farmer Ian Tate near Kirklevington, North Yorkshire, and driven nearly nine miles before being crashed into a three-bedroom house on Priory Road. Although the house was unoccupied at the time, it had to be completely rebuilt. The tractor required £56,000 in repairs, and a hay baler worth £30,000 was written off. The judge noted that the tractor nearly hit a shared party wall with a neighboring house. The defendant, named as Blagg, admitted to aggravated vehicle taking and criminal damage while being reckless about endangering life. He also admitted to affray in connection with a previous confrontation in Middlesbrough town center with Lancaster, who had already been jailed for his role in that day’s violence. Prosecuting lawyer Jamie Wilson said that Lancaster had driven his car into Blagg outside the Probation Service offices, throwing him over the bonnet. Blagg later told police that any violence that occurred on 21 April was in self-defense. Defending lawyer Rod Hunt said that he had seen "distressing footage" shared on social media by Lancaster, in which he urinated on the graves of Blagg’s brother and father and kicked over a gravestone. Mr. Hunt argued that Blagg and others viewed criminal damage to a rival as less serious than a physical attack, stating: "By the strange logic of the underworld, the targeting of property is less serious than, in fact, running over Mr. Lancaster or treating him in the way he had been treated." In a separate incident, five days after the tractor ramming, Blagg also admitted to aggravated vehicle taking after stealing a Jaguar and driving it at high speed into a lamppost. The car spun 180 degrees and threw the streetlight 20 meters down the road. Both the driver and passenger were seriously injured, but despite this, Blagg tried to drive the wrecked vehicle away while paramedics attended. Blagg was already disqualified from driving when he stole the tractor and crashed the Jaguar, the court heard. The family who lived in the house that was rammed had already moved out of their home of 24 years due to previous attacks. In a victim impact statement, the woman who lived there said: "I don't tell anyone where I live (now) for fear I and my family will be violently attacked." She expressed uncertainty about whether she would be able to get a mortgage or insure a house again. A man who lived there added: "We are a hard-working family and we don't deserve to be put through this." Mr. Tate, in his victim statement, said the theft of his tractor had cost him thousands of pounds. "Farming is hard enough without all this I have been put through," he said. The judge acknowledged that Blagg had been provoked. Recorder Reid said: "You were in the spring of this year grossly aggrieved, and rightly so, by the disgusting behaviour of those who desecrated your relatives' graves and then compounded that disgusting behaviour by posting material on social media showing this." The judge referred to the criminal damage charge, relating to the tractor ramming, saying: "This is about as serious as it gets, in my judgment." The offence was aggravated by the "enormous amount of damage," the planning, and the vehicle used. The judge also banned Blagg from driving for seven years. Outside court, Detective Chief Inspector Dan Cook said: "To steal a tractor from a farm, to then be driven at high speed towards Middlesbrough and rammed with extreme force into a house shows the lengths Blagg will go to instil fear and violence, all without a thought or care for residents and the wider public."