Imagine being accused of a deliberate and premeditated land grab.

Well that is exactly what a resident in North London was accused of by his local council but they’ve now been ordered to pay him £32,000 after they wrongfully accused him of  stealing part of his own garden.

In 2004, Christopher Pinto, 77, a retired magistrate, bought his home in North London.

The property which backs onto the Parkland Walk nature reserve, a 4.5 mile walk along the former railway line between Alexandra Palace and Finsbury Park.

But in 2012 Friends of Parkland Walk (FPW) claimed to have carried out a boundary review with Haringey Council, in which a concern was raised about the position of Mr Pinto’s back garden fence. But it wasn’t until 2016, that the council contacted Mr Pinto alleging that he was illegally occupying 42.5 square feet of the nature reserve.

Subsequently Mr Pinto took Haringey to a tribunal, arguing the land was rightfully his under ‘adverse possession’ rules, under which occupants can seek ownership of land occupied for at least 12 years without challenge.

The Council then said that Mr Pinto had not only stolen the land, but had tried to hide it by erecting a tall fence, describing it as a ‘deliberate and premeditated land grab’.

This argument fell apart after a contractor who worked on the garden shortly after Mr Pinto moved in, gave evidence that he simply built a new fence in place of the old one, following which Mr Pinto also produced a legal form signed by the previous owner in 2004, stating that the boundary had not changed for at least 20 years.

Well it probably wasn’t a very good idea for the council to take a former magistrate to court since probably inevitably the judge, Roger Cohen pronounced that it was clear that Mr Pinto was the rightful owner, and ordered the council to cough up the £32,000 which they then failed to settle apparently due to an administrative error, resulting in a further court judgement. 

But even now Mr Pinto claims that his legal costs have still left him £10,000 out of pocket.

In the second hour of today’s show, I was joined by Margaret Mils, who’s subject this week concerned an unusual reference library established in Maldon in 1704 by a Dr Plume, who was both the vicar of Greenwich and Archdeacon of Rochester, but who lived in Maldon.

If you missed it, listen again here to what Margaret told me today: –

Hope to see you again next time,
Scott