A MAN who stole a JCB and then reversed it over a police vehicle has been remanded in custody ahead of his sentence next month.

Stephen Seaman, 27, took the vehicle from a building site, smashing through a fence and driving it over fields.

He was pursued by police and at one point stopped the JCB and reversed it over a Ford Focus patrol vehicle while an officer was still in it. The officer was uninjured.

The defendant, who appeared in the dock at Teesside Crown Court, admitted theft and damaging a fence belonging to Miller Homes on November 28 last year.

He also pleaded guilty to dangerous driving in Fishponds Road, Redcar and damaging police property, being reckless as to whether life was endangered.

Seaman, of Lime Road, Normanby, near Middlesbrough, was remanded in custody by The Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Simon Bourne-Arton.

The case was adjourned until March 1.