Our lives have been ruined by ‘gang’ of neighbours who ‘spy on us & yell insults’ – now we’ve sued them for £1.3million
A COUPLE claim their lives have been ruined by a “gang” of neighbours who spy on them and yell insults.
Mark Dyer and wife Clare, both 58, have sued a GP and three pensioners from their small village of Brook, south west Surrey, for £1.3million.
The pair took Dr Andrew Cross, 63, retired bank executive David Small, 81, his wife Susan, 78, and charity trustee Patricia Webb, 77, to court following an alleged harassment case.
As well as suing, they have also applied for an injunction against their neighbours.
They claim their lives have been blighted by a “vendetta” over a planning row since they installed a “permanent helipad” in their field back in 2007.
Dubbing them a “menacing gang”, property magnate Mark said his family’s life in their £2.6m home is being affected as they put up with trespassing and intrusion.
The group have even gone to lengths of using telephoto lenses and appearing on the roof of the Dyers’ home mimicking their security system, a court heard.
But the four deny any wrong doing branding the case a “misconceived attempt to litigate village politics and perceived insults”.
Tensions grew when the Dyers submitted over 50 planning applications to extend their home which boasts a pool and a tennis court.
London High Court was told Clare wanted to develop a real estate empire on a stretch of land they already owned with two cottages on.
The Dyers’ barrister, Richard Barraclough KC, said the harassment took the form of bombarding Guildford Borough Council with objections to their planning proposals.
Pensioner Small was also accused of using an intrusive use of a telephoto camera for “spooky gazing” and being overly “concerned with their private lives”.
Mr Barraclough added: “It’s a personal vendetta – say the claimants – either through direct acts of harassment or by indirectly using the planning process as a device to harass them.”
He said the Dyers’ lives had been plagued by their neighbours’ antics forcing Clare to undergo a “change of personality as a result of the harassment”.
But the barrister for the four accused, Amy Proferes, said the individual acts of alleged harassment were petty and in many cases stretched far back into the past.
She told the court: “[The Dyers] seek to frame every action or comment by any of the four as part of a coordinated campaign and the defendants – three of whom are elderly – as a menacing ‘gang’.
“My clients vehemently deny any harassment of the Dyers.”
Small, who denies all the harassment claims, says he has barely seen Mark in the past 20 years.
He added him and his wife have only seen him if they’re out walking their dogs.
Mrs Small also denies the claims as her lawyers maintain she has “no case to answer”.
Webb said she hasn’t spoken to either of the Dyers in 26 years.
Judge Dexter Dias KC will make a decision about granting the injunction in July.