Dad-of-eight caught on CCTV ramming family's home with car after row over clothes

A dad-of-eight deliberately rammed his car into the front of his own family home in a row over clothes.

Paul Palmer had split up with the mother of his children when he was caught on CCTV driving his white VW Gold across the garden and into the house.

A court heard there had been a disagreement over some clothes he had left at the house in Sunderland so he decided to ram into it.

Footage shows the collision was not very fast or hard but it did cause damage to the house.

The 38-year-old had warned he would smash the windows when he turned up a few days earlier and had sent a series of threatening messages, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

He drove off after smashing into the house (chroniclelive/ws)

On September 12 Palmer, who appeared "intoxicated" contacted his former partner on FaceTime then turned up at the house half an hour later.

Prosecutor Peter Schofield told the court: "He drove, fairly deliberately, onto a grassed area at the side of and some distance from the property.

"He drove over the grassed area and aligned himself with the home and drove into the front of the home."

Palmer, of Carley Road, Sunderland, admitted threatening to cause damage, causing criminal damage and dangerous driving.

He drove across the grass (chroniclelive/ws)

Paul Palmer was given a suspended sentence (chroniclelive/ws)

Recorder Jonathan Sandiford QC sentenced Palmer, who has been in custody on remand, to 16 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, with rehabilitation and programme requirements.

Palmer was banned from driving for two years and must pass and extended test before he is allowed back behind the wheel.

The judge said Palmer was "selfish and immature", had acted like a "petulant teenager" and told him: "You did something reckless and potentially very dangerous.”

The judge said the collision was not high speed and the damage was likely to be valued at less than £5,000.

He hit the family home (chroniclelive/ws)

He added: "Nobody in the house was hurt but clearly what you did was dangerous and it clearly created a great risk that someone could have been hurt.

"When you did that you were thinking out of your pure petulant selfishness."

Tony Cornberg, defending, said the damage Palmer caused to the house needed to be "put right, rather than reconstructed".

He added: "There is some work to be done and the work starts with him."