THE man who leapt into the oil-filled tanker and drove it away from the flames was hailed as a ‘very brave person’ by the judge.

Judge Jarvis said: “Everybody needs to pay tribute to the actions of Darren Fletcher.

“He must have realised there was some real risk to himself and notwithstanding that risk he drove that petrol tanker away from its position with those fires getting worse and fuel still leaking onto them.

“Those were the actions of a very brave person.”

Miss Rickman told the court that there was a fire under the tanker as Mr Fletcher drove it away and fuel was leaking from it.

She said the valves had been left partially open but because they were not fully open there was no risk of the tanker exploding.

Miss Rickman added that there were a number of people including children on their way to school in the area at the time of the incident.

Judge Jarvis told Billington: “The valves fortunately were not fully opened, if they had and the fires caught it needs very little imagination to realise what would have transpired.

“There would have been the most enormous bomb.”