A landscape gardener today told how he accidentally crushed his friend to death with a forklift truck in the garden of a new multi-million pound house.

Ben Williams, 36, ran over 28-year-old Russell Meech when he tripped in front of the noisy vehicle as the pair helped move plants and trees at the Potters Bar mansion, an inquest heard.

Mr Meech, who had only recently moved in with his girlfriend, suffered a cadiac arrest as the truck’s wheels rolled over him and fellow workers screamed for the driver to stop.

Mr Williams, who had worked with Mr Meech for more than seven years and got on “really well” with him, said he slammed on the brakes and reversed before jumping out and giving his stricken friend CPR as he lay motionless on the floor.

However, air ambulance paramedics pronounced Mr Meech dead at the scene when they arrived a short time later on June 18, 2013.

Mr Williams had been driving forklift trucks for more than 15 years but did not hold a licence, though the inquest heard this was not required on private developments.

The two men had been transporting the trees from a delivery lorry to another area of the gardens when the events unfolded, the inquest at Herts Coroner’s Court in Hatfield heard today.

The court heard they had carried out the same manoeuvre “five or six times” already that day, with Mr Meech walking at the front right of the truck to hold the trees steady on the fork and stop them swinging.

But at about 9.30am Mr Meech tripped and fell into the path of the slow-moving vehicle, the inquest heard.

Eyewitness Cowley White, a freelance landscape gardener also working on the five-acre site, said: “Russell was holding the top of the tree, which was horizontal on the fork.

“He was about 1.5 metres away from the truck and as it turned to the left, extremely slowly, he tripped and projected himself in a way that I couldn’t work out how he got there.

“He was initially to the side of the vehicle but he tripped and suddenly he was absolutely in front of the wheel, face down.

“I realised what was going to happen and I shouted at the driver and he stopped, but by then it was too late.”

Mr Williams told the inquest jury that he had no idea his friend had fallen in front of the vehicle.

He said: “We had just come away from the delivery lorry, going at about two or three miles per hour, and we had to take a left-hand turn.

“One minute he (Mr Meech) was there and then suddenly I saw these people waving at me to stop. I had no idea what was happening.

"There was all these waving people and no hi-vis jacket and no Russell.”

Mr Williams said he did not hear any shouting from Mr Meech over the noise of the vehicle.

He said: “I was told to reverse and put the tree down, which I did, and then everyone came running over.

"If he had tripped over there wouldn’t have been any time for me to stop.”

The court heard how Mr Williams was one of the first to begin administering first aid to his friend in the frantic moments after the incident.

Asked if he was in shock at the time, he said: “Yes, I was.”

Mr Williams, who sat a few yards from Mr Meech’s parents and sister as he gave evidence, said he had known his colleague for many years.

He said: “I’d known him for seven or eight years.

"We had worked together many times before on different projects.

“He was very happy, a great bloke, we got on really well.”

The inquest continues.