A father who crashed his Land Rover into a river, killing four of his seven children, had made “incompetent” modifications to his vehicle, a court was told yesterday.

Nigel Gresham, 37, denies causing the deaths of his children Willow, 2, Angel, 4, Thor, 6, and Keavy, 8, by dangerous driving, when he lost control of his vehicle and crashed it into the River Witham in Lincolnshire in September last year.

Lincoln Crown Court was told that Mr Gresham had customised his 12-seat Land Rover 110 to enhance its off-road performance, but these modifications had rendered the vehicle “dangerous and unroadworthy”.

Timothy Spencer, QC, prosecuting, said: “\ major pastime was driving it off-road and it may be that a number of the modifications were intended to assist him with that. Sadly, they didn’t assist him with driving on-road.

“A number of the modifications were ill-judged, many were incompetently carried out and he also failed to carry out a number of repairs.”

The jury were shown DVD footage of police tests carried out on the car at RAF Scampton, which found that the calliper on the offside front brake was larger than the one on the nearside front brake, which caused the car to slew when the brakes were applied.

Mr Spencer told the jury that the brake pedals were worn and that, as a result, the brake pedal had to be pressed “pretty much down to the floor” before it began to stop the car.

Experts also found the steering and rear axle to be defective.

Sara Bolland, Mr Gresham’s partner and their three eldest children, Liam, Amber and Star, survived the crash, which was witnessed by fellow motorists on the road at Tattershall Bridge near Coningsby.

Mr Spencer told the court that Anthony Morgan was driving a Transit van in the opposite direction and saw Mr Gresham’s yellow vehicle speed past before swerving off the road and tumbling down the bank into the 15ft-deep river.

Mr Gresham told a police officer at the scene that he lost control of his car when the oncoming Transit, which was towing a trailer, did not move over sufficiently to let him pass.

The court heard of the heroic efforts of passers-by who dived into the river to aid the family. But it was too late for Willow, who drowned, and the three other children, whose deaths were caused by the effects of being in the water — but not technically by drowning.

The court heard that the Land Rover passed an MoT in February last year but a friend had seen Mr Gresham, a mechanic, repeatedly making repairs to a faulty rear axle that had come loose a fortnight before the crash. It was a bracket snapping on this rear axle that caused the car to swerve as it moved on to the grass verge, the court heard.

The jury was told that Mr Gresham had been driving at between 50 and 60mph along the narrow stretch of country lane in a “defective vehicle”, which made the accident an “avoidable tragedy”.

Mr Gresham denies four counts of causing death by dangerous driving. The trial continues.

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