Click for police helicopter video
Steven Regan, 34, admitted several offences including dangerous driving, theft and criminal damage and stealing 16 other plant vehicles over the year.
The man from Leeds, who left a trail of destruction captured on a police helicopter video, was revealed in Nottingham Crown Court to be a member of a plant theft gang.
The court was told Regan had stolen the telehandler from a Barratt Homes building site in Forest Town, Mansfield.
The judge said he had driven like a man posessed hitting cemetery headstones, walls and hedges.
Police eventually caught Regan when the JCB suffered a flat tyre and came to a halt.
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