Four-year drive battle over a white line on a Nottingham driveway ends up in court again

A TERRITORIAL battle over a few inches of land has landed a 73-year-old man in court again.

Richard Carter has been found guilty of twice breaking a restraining order to alter his neighbour's boundary.

A judge in Nottingham heard how Carter painted a dotted white line boundary on neighbour Leanne Jamson's block-paving in June.

And, in July, he moved her wooden planters and parked his trailer up against them so they couldn't be moved back.

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This week, District Judge Leo Pyle convicted him of breaching the restraining order under the 1997 Protection from Harassment Act after a trial at Nottingham Magistrates' Court.

Carter and Mrs Jamson have been at odds for four years over a piece of drive between 12 and 18 inches wide.

A civil court hearing in 2008 concluded that the small piece of land in Fields Drive, Aslockton, belongs to Mrs Jamson.

But Carter continued to disagree, and in October last year a restraining order prevented him from changing the boundary.

In court, Carter denied the charge as he claimed the land was his. But giving evidence behind a screen at the trial, Mrs Jamson said it was hers.

She said she left her home at 5.45pm on June 30 and returned at 10.30pm to find the white line. She said: "It was on my blocked paving and about a foot on to my property."

Mrs Jamson said she left her house at 9am on July 10 to go to work, only to return at 5.40pm to find the planters moved.

She added: "They had been moved on to my property and his trailer was the other side of the planters, encroaching on to my property, stopping me putting the planters where they should be."

Mrs Jamson said she could provide photos of both incidents as evidence but Rosemary Wilde, prosecuting, said: "It's not contested that Mr Carter has done the physical act of the two allegations of breach because they are accepted. What may be in dispute now is whether or not he painted that line in contravention of the restraining order."

She said Carter had "laid claim to the land".

"Essentially it's suggested he doesn't accept the initial county court judgement, therefore he has a reasonable excuse for breaching the order."

Chris Brewin, defending, said: "My claimant has not encroached in any way, shape, or form and has not breached the restraining order. My client has not reconciled himself to the county court order."

District Judge Pyle ordered a pre-sentence report be prepared before he sentences Carter on January 24, and granted conditional bail.