The body of a much loved dad who died after a ride-on lawnmower fell on top of him lay undiscovered for almost two days, an inquest has been told.

Spencer Gradus, 52, was cutting the grass at his Victorian mansion in Hernhill when it is believed he fell off the machine and became trapped beneath it as it toppled onto its side.

But he was not found until two days later, when a concerned colleague went to the house to investigate.

The hearing at Folkestone Coroners’ Court was told retired company director Mr Gradus was living on a boat in Spain but had returned to Faversham shortly before the tragedy.

He and his ex-wife Zana Gradus were planning to sell the house, but when potential buyers arrived on the Sunday before his body was found, nobody answered the door.

Mrs Gradus told the inquest: “I was with him from about 10am until 2.30pm on the Saturday as we had somebody coming round the next morning to view the house. He was on really good form.

“He loved cutting the grass. We had a full-time gardener but he liked to spend a lot of time on the mower.

“He didn’t like the gardener doing the lawn-mowing. I didn’t realise he was going to cut the grass that day but he was going to tidy the garden before the people came round to look at it.

“I text him later that day to say it was so nice to see him so happy and healthy.

“The potential buyers arrived at 10am on Sunday and could not get an answer.”

Mr Gradus’s colleague Robert Field went to the house the following day, the morning of May 16, 2016.

“I called for him but there was no answer, but then I saw the garage door was open and the tractor was not in there,” he told the hearing.

“That’s when I went to look around the grounds. I could see the tip of the tractor poking out and, as I got nearer, I could see the tractor was on its side and was down a bank.”

Firefighters, police and paramedics were called to the large garden, which has a number of steep slopes, where crews used a winch to remove the tractor and recover Mr Gradus’s body.

The seatbelt to the mower was fastened.

DS Andrew Lambert told the inquest he believed Mr Gradus was reversing the vehicle when a wheel had slipped off the bank, causing it to fall onto its side.

He said that Mr Gradus had probably fallen out of the vehicle and the tractor had then toppled onto him.

Pathologist Salim Anjarwalla said Mr Gradus had suffered a cardiac event and positional asphyxia, but he was unsure whether he had suffered a heart attack before or immediately after the accident.

Assistant coroner Christine Freeman said: “This is a tragic story about a man doing what many men do on the weekend - cutting the grass. We may never know the exact sequence of events.

“The evidence identifies two significant potential causes of death and it is quite probable he had some sort of cardiac event, but at the same time, if one is in a position where one has a tractor on their chest, asphyxia is a very likely cause of death.

“Given the circumstances and the contributory factors, I am going to conclude that this was a tragic accident.”

Mr Gradus leaves behind his children Natasha and Jack, son-in-law Chris and granddaughter Amelia.