Millionaire doctor ripped down a 'trellis in a fit of rage'

Millionaire public health doctor ripped down a ‘trellis in a fit of rage’ in war with her Tooting neighbours over fears they were ganging up on her to ‘take her land’

• Dr Veena Paes is in a legal battle over land behind her £1million Tooting home 
• The doctor is accused of ripping down her neighbour’s trellis in a ‘fit of rage’ 

A millionaire doctor ripped down her neighbour’s trellis in ‘a fit of rage’ after accusing them of conspiring to take her land, a court has heard. 

Dr Veena Paes is locked in a bitter legal battle with three sets of her neighbours over a strip of land that runs behind her £1 million home on Trevelyan Road, Tooting. 

The public health expert claims her neighbours have ‘colluded to trespass’ on the 84 ft x 20 ft strip that separates her house from theirs. 

The doctor and her finance executive husband claim historical documents show the disputed land belongs to them and that their neighbours have wrongfully locked them out with fences and a gate.

Her south London neighbours instead claim they are the true owners of the strip, or that alternatively, they have gained ownership of the land by using it for multiple years.  

Dr Veena Paes (right) and her husband Melanius Paes (left) are locked in a court battle with neighbours over a strip of land that runs behind their £1 million south London home 

The doctor’s neighbours – Thomas and Florence Benton, Robert Gilder and Althea D’Lima, and Mohammed Shaffi – own three corner plot properties alongside her own.

The medic and her husband Melanius Paes claim the Tooting neighbours have engaged in a ‘conspiracy’ and ‘colluded to trespass’ on the strip which separates all four properties.

The couple say house deeds and historical documents prove the strip, which gives them side access to their back garden, is theirs.

They are now fighting against their neighbours, who are seeking a court ruling that they are the true owners or, alternatively, have gained adverse possession – or squatters’ rights – by use of the strip as part of their property over many years.

Central London County Court heard the strip of disputed land runs behind the three houses belonging to the Paes’ neighbours, who say it is part of their gardens, and alongside the side wall and garden of her property.

Dr Paes first started complaining about ‘encroachment’ seven years ago after HR executives Mr Gilder and Ms D’Lima moved into a house on adjoining Bickersteth Road.

The doctor wrote the new neighbours a letter warning them about the dangers of ‘criminal trespass’ immediately following their move.

The couple claim their neighbours have wrongfully prevented them from accessing the disputed land by erecting new fencing and removing a gate, which they used to access the strip to maintain their garden wall. 

The neighbours’ barrister, James Sandham, said tensions boiled over with the Bentons in the summer of 2017, in an incident that saw Dr Paes rip down a trellis in a fit of rage. 

‘You ripped their trellis down in a fit of rage in 2017 when you were not getting your way,’ the barrister said. 

‘The trellis was already falling down,’ replied the medic.

Mr Sandham went on to accuse Dr Paes of trying to ‘manipulate and bully’ Mr Gilder and Ms D’Lima.

Dr Paes is accused of ripping down Thomas (pictured) and Florence Benton’s trellis in a fit of rage in 2017 

Dr Paes and her husband are fighting over the 84 ft x 20 ft piece of land (pictured) that separates their £1 million house on Trevelyan Road from their neighbours’ homes

The lawyer highlighted a letter sent to the niehgbouring couple after they returned from holiday in 2016 ‘talking about criminal trespass’.

In May 2016, Dr Paes had also written to a neighbour who has since moved away from the street, complaining about a new fence ‘encroaching’ on her land, Mr Sandham said.

‘Similar letters followed to Mr and Mrs Shaffi at number 13 and Mr Gilder and Ms D’Lima on 1 July 2016,’ he continued.

‘There was then some email correspondence between Dr Paes and Mr Gilder and Ms D’Lima in which she alleged “criminal trespass” was occurring.’

Tensions later came to a head again when Mr Gilder and Ms D’Lima ‘called the police on Dr Paes,’ the court heard.

‘The correspondence escalated to the extent that the Metropolitan Police wrote to the defendants on Mr Gilder’s behalf, telling them that they could not damage the fence at number 11,’ said Mr Sandham. 

‘The Paes have alleged that there is a “conspiracy” between the owners of numbers nine, 11 and 13,’ he added. 

‘When you don’t get your own way, you start writing letters and try bullying and coercing people into doing what you want,’ he said to Dr Paes in the witness box.

However, the doctor instead insisted: ‘It was the other way round, we were being harassed.’

‘You were unable to get what you wanted,’ Mr Sandham continued. ‘What you wanted was separate access in order to develop your back garden.’

Addressing the judge, he said: ‘The Paes only acquired their home in 2006.

‘Some 14 years later, they came to believe – or, at least, sought to pose as having a belief in – their entitlement to…the disputed strip.’

Dr Paes has accused her neighbours on the corner of Bickersteth Road (pictured) of conspiring to take the land that runs next to her home on Trevelyan Road 

The neighbours on Bickerstreth Road claim they own the disputed land, or that instead, they have gained ownership over it by using it for multiple years

Dr Paes first raised the issue of the boundary shifting in 2016 when she complained that one of her previous neighbours had erected a fence in the wrong place, the court heard, while a gate giving the Paes access was also later removed.

From the witness box, Dr Paes said: ‘There used to be a big gap we could go along to maintain the wall, the issue for me came after July 2015 when we were blocked and didn’t have access.’

Speaking to Dr Paes, Mr Sandham asked: ‘So you say it’s all part of a conspiracy – your case is that your neighbours have got together and engineered this situation to deprive you of your land?’

‘To deprive us of access to our land,’ replied Dr Paes.

The barrister suggested Dr Paes had ‘dramatised’ the summer 2015 tension with her neighbours, insisting that ‘there was no concerted effort by your neighbours to steal your land’.

Asked why she hadn’t complained to Mr Benton about blocking access to the strip back in 2015, she explained: ‘We wrote to him only after we had an argument with him about a trellis that he wanted to erect.’

The Paes’ barrister, Norah Modha, said his clients are seeking a court order marking out the boundary in their favour, along with an injunction ‘in respect of the buildings, structures or objects on land that is determined to fall within their title’.

‘Our case is straightforward: the conveyancing and other documents at the time the properties were created is determinative in our favour,’ he told the judge.

After four days in court, Recorder Green reserved his judgment in the case.

Source: Read Full Article