‘Highly skilled Thomas was very, very popular’
JCB pays tribute to dad-of-one killed in suspected hit and run
DIGGER giant JCB has paid tribute to one of its workers after they were knocked down and killed in a latenight ‘hit-and-run.’
More than 800 workers staged a minute’s silence in memory of Moorlands man Thomas Kent at the company’s Rocester world HQ less than 24 hours after the tragedy.
The 32-year-old had worked at JCB for more than 10 years and was a popular figure on the Loadall division shopfloor.
Loadall business unit general manager Matt Davies said: “Thomas was one of our very best people. He was really hardworking, highly skilled and very capable and willing when it came to training other people.
“He was a great colleague who was very, very popular and he really is going to be very much missed.”
It has emerged that Thomas had returned to his Hollington home after completing a 12-hour JCB shift at 6pm on Wednesday, February 23.
The dad-of-one later went to the nearby Raddle Inn where he played in the pool team before starting to walk home.
But he never made it back to his fiance and child and was found just doors away from his home in the early hours of Thursday.
It comes as Staffordshire Police are still investigating the suspected hit-and-run.
Peter Wilkinson, who has run The Raddle Inn for the past 30 years, said: “I’ve known him all his life. I’ve been part of the major times in his life like his 18th, 21st and 30th birthdays. For his 30th we had a surprise party for him here. It was before covid.
“He was on my pool team. You’d call him solid in stature because he was stocky, physically. His father and his brothers play for me as well. He was part of the pub family.
“When I heard I was shocked, it’s tragic. We were invited to his wedding which would have been this August.
“He was a reliable family man. I am going to miss his presence and character. He will be missed massively, he has left a big hole in the community. We are going to put a picture up of him in the pub.
“His mother and father came around on Friday morning and I went round on Saturday with some flowers. It’s a massive shock. Whoever did this, just look at your conscience. It’s wrong to leave somebody to die like that. ”
Local county councillor and fellow publican Mark Deaville said: “The whole of our community is in mouning following this tragedy.
“I am deeply, deeply saddened and offer my sincere condolences.”
Police believe Thomas was hit by a vehicle on Buttermilk Hill, in Hollington, between 12.45am and 2am on February 24.
Detective Inspector Pete Cooke, from Staffordshire Police’s northern criminal investigation department, said: “We are particularly keen to trace a vehicle travelling in the direction of Tean towards Rocester and beyond during that timeframe.”
Anyone with any information should call the police on 101 or call Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.