Tycoon killed by tractor mowing his lawn
A RETIRED businessman lay dead outside his £2million mansion for two days after a tractor crushed him while he was mowing the lawn.
Spencer Gradus, who retired as a director of a technology firm last year, had gone out to cut the grass at his eightbedroom Victorian home.
The 52-year-old is believed to have lost control after reversing the tractor and its mowing attachment over the side of a steep bank. He is thought to have fallen out of the tractor, which then fell on top of him and killed him.
An inquest into his death heard how Mr Gradus and his ex-wife Zana had just returned from living in Spain to sell the property in Hernhill, Kent.
Mr Gradus visited the house to cut the lawn on May 14 this year, but when house viewers arrived on the next day, they got no answer at the mansion, which has four acres of garden including an orchard, tennis court and outdoor swimming pool.
The businessman was not found until two days after the accident, when colleague Robert Field spotted the tractor was missing. He told the inquest at Folkestone Coroner’s Court this week: ‘I saw the garage door was open and the tractor was not in there. I could see the tip of it poking out and as I got nearer I could see the tractor was on its side and was down a bank.’
Mrs Gradus – also a director of tech firm Tallgrand Ltd, and who was with him earlier in the day – told the inquest: ‘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.’
Pathologist Salim Anjarwalla said Mr Gradus had suffered a heart attack and positional asphyxia.