The digger which ended up in the village pond at GrittletonGAZETTE & HERALD: A 38-year-old year old businessman from Grittleton, near Chippenham, has been charged with two counts of criminal damage after a line of trees were destroyed by a mechanical digger.

Police, fire crews and the police helicopter were called to the Ryley's Farm development in Grittleton at 1am on Friday, after neighbours had reported that a mechanical digger was ripping branches from trees on the site outside their homes.

One neighbour said: "The man was in the digger and was hacking away at the trees that run along the front of our properties.

"The police and firecrews were here and the police helicopter was hovering overhead, with lights trained on the digger.

"The police were trying to stop him but he had locked himself in the cab.

"He wasn't shouting or anything, he just seemed focussed on what he was doing.

"Then he drove towards the pond and into it.

"At that stage the digger looked very much as if it was going to topple over into the water."

PC Dave Budd, who was called to the scene along with other officer and two fire crews, said: "The man had locked himself in the cab of the digger.

"After lopping down branches from the trees, he drove it into the pond outside his house. He had activated the lock to the cab and we could not release him.

"There was a serious risk that the digger would topple into the water, but he was finally talked out the cab of the digger."

The man was then arrested and taken to Melksham Police Station.

"During the incident the arm of the digger was flailing about all over the place in a very dangerous manner," added PC Budd.

"It really was a potentially very dangerous situation."

Another neighbour told how she thought the commotion was one of the horses on the site, breaking through a fence. She said: "We were very worried that the digger was going to topple over into the lake with him still locked inside the cab.

"I saw the man a couple of days ago and he was fine."

Sub Officer Dave Jacomb from Chippenham fire station said that crews attended the scene after reports that a man was trapped in water.

"We mobilised the water rescue unit from Cooper Avon in Melksham," he said.

"But fortunately the man released himself safely."

The man appeared at Chippenham Magistrate's Court on Saturday morning on two charges of criminal damage and one of excess alcohol.

He is due to appear before magistrates again on April 23.