A 29-year-old man has pleaded guilty to driving a 40-tonne dumper truck through a residential estate, causing £50,000 worth of “carnage”.

Christopher David Mills had drunk a two-litre bottle of whisky in his lunch hour shortly before he drove the massive vehicle through roads in East Malling, near Maidstone, on Monday, June 13, a court heard.

Mills appeared in court via video link from HMP Elmley, Sheppey, when he pleaded guilty to six charges.

Angela Jouanneau, prosecuting, said: “The defendant was employed on the West Malling bypass and was authorised to drive a dumper truck.

“His shift was to work from 7am until 3pm and at the end of the working day he was to leave the vehicle on site because it was on hire to the company with whom the defendant was employed. He was not authorised to take it off site in any event.”

Ms Jouanneau said that at about 3.30pm, Mills was seen driving the dumper truck off site towards Temple Way, East Malling.

“He drove it down private roads and streets in the East Malling residential area and along one road there were some gas workers,” she added. As he proceeded down the road, the tyres actually encroached on their barriers and narrowly missed them.

“They were very irate and shouted at him to stop, but he carried on and in doing so caused carnage. He then drove into a telegraph pole, struck the garages, then reversed back over them, flattening them.

“People had chased him and somebody clambered up into the cab and punched him to prevent him from doing any more damage.”

Twelve cars worth more than £12,000 were destroyed during Mills’ rampage and the total clean-up bill is expected to top £50,000.

Ms Jouanneau said that when police arrived, Mills gave a breath test that registered 189mg of alcohol per 100ml of breath.

The legal limit for driving is 35mg per 100ml of breath.

Mills pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol, driving without a licence, driving with no insurance, aggravated vehicle taking without consent, aggravated damage to a row of garages and criminal damage to the garages in excess of £5,000.

The court heard that Mills, of Four Acres, East Malling, also had two previous convictions for drink driving, one in Feberuary 1995, where he was disqualified for two years, and one two years later, where he was disqualified for a further three years.

James Ross, defending, did not offer any defence. The magistrates adjourned the hearing for pre-sentence reports.