A MAN who drove an oil tanker into a house while his wife was inside faces jail after admitting a string of offences.

Hugh Robertson Billington, 51, pleaded guilty to a charge of arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered when he appeared at Dorchester Crown Court.

The charge related to damage by fire to the property in Folly Lane, Wool, owned by him and his wife Christine Billington, on January 20.

Billington also admitted assaulting Trevor Knott on the same date as well as an offence of dangerous driving.

He pleaded guilty to a further charge of theft of a boiler suit and rugby shirt from Oliver Towers, again on January 20.

Billington denied a charge of arson with intent to endanger life and, after he pleaded guilty to the alternative charge of arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered, prosecutor Jennie Rickman said the pleas were acceptable and the Crown would not be seeking a trial.

Mrs Billington was in the bungalow’s kitchen when the tanker, loaded with kerosene, crashed through the front wall of the house, the court heard.

She escaped through a window to a neighbour’s house as a fire ripped through the house towards the back garden.

About 30 firefighters attended the blaze which took about an hour to bring under control.

Miss Rickman told the court that in a basis of plea, Billington claimed that by the time he started the fire he knew Mrs Billington had left the property, having climbed out of a window and gone to a neighbour’s house.

She added that the dangerous driving charge related to the driving of the oil tanker along Folly Lane and into the house.

Miss Rickman said: “The Crown says to drive a tanker that size in the manner that it was driven off the road and into a house is dangerous.” The defendant appeared in court wearing a dark grey suit, white shirt and red tie and spoke only to answer the charges put to him.

Mitigating, Tim Shorter said his client had already been the subject of a psychiatric report and Judge Roger Jarvis ordered that the case be adjourned for a pre-sentence report.

The judge warned Billington that a jail term was ‘inevitable’ when he returned to court.

He said: “You have made admissions to some very serious matters, loss of liberty is inevitable.

“Before I sentence you I want to know rather more about you and understand a psychiatric report has been obtained and I shall be considering that in due course. I also want a pre-sentence report.

“You will return here on April 30 when sentencing will take place.”

Billington was remanded in custody and was made the subject of an interim driving ban.

Incident which shook village

The incident shocked the normally peaceful village of Wool as parents dropped off children at a nearby school.

Billington smashed the oil tanker into the front of the house and started a fire.

He sprinted from the scene and kicked a passer-by who tried to apprehend him.

However, a heroic dad drove the tanker to safety.

Darren Fletcher leapt into action after the fully-laden fuel tanker was driven into the bungalow.

Brave Mr Fletcher, of Wareham, had just taken his daughter to school when he saw the tanker plough into the bungalow in Folly Lane.

He then jumped in to move it out of the way of the flames.

Meanwhile, Andy Neal, aged 42, also saw the commotion and jumped in to help whilst on the school run to St Marys Catholic First School, just yards from the scene.

The double-glazer, of Cologne Road, Bovington, said at the time: “As we got in to Folly Lane, my partner Shelley and I saw the tanker in the front of the bungalow.

“My first thought was to see how the driver managed it, I thought it was an accident.

“There was really heavy black smoke, but I found a dog and passed it over the fence to Shelley.

“I could hear a fire extinguisher and all of a sudden the flames went out because luckily the fire service had got there.”