A MAN who claims he hacked back a hedge to improve road safety has gone on trial accused of causing criminal damage.

Jeffrey Warren was arrested and charged after a 15-foot-high hawthorn hedge in Battlesbridge was trimmed back to about three feet.

Warren, 44, of Highlands Road, Wickford, denies the charge.

He claimed in police interviews he was trying to improve road safety, by clearing the way to give motorists a better view of Highlands Road’s junction with Watery Lane and Beeches Lane.

Judge Christopher Mitchell told the jury at Basildon Crown Court the case was “very unusual”.

Noel Casey, prosecuting, told the jury Warren drove a macro mini digger, armed with a manure fork, into a 120-metre stretch of hedge, on March 26 last year.

The hedge lined a field opposite Warren’s home, Pickerals Farm.

Mr Casey said: “Warren was observed driving his macro into the hedge and pulling out – crushing it, flattening it and reducing it that way.

“He wasn’t cutting the hedge, he crushed it on land that didn’t belong to him.

“It does not, in any event, amount to good husbandry.”

Police were called and during interviews Warren said his mother had owned the paddock at some point and he cut the hedge for road safety reasons.

Glynn Ivison-Hatch, a plastererer, bought Hawthorn Lodge and its seven-acre paddock in November 2009 after it was repossessed, and planned to rent the land out to horse owners.

He told the court the field wasn’t secure enough for animals after the “beautiful hedge” was reduced.

Mr Ivison-Hatch said there was “fantastic vision” at the junction before the hedge was cut.

The court heard the hedge would cost £4,900 if it was fully replanted and take between three and five years to grow back to its original height.