England cricket legend’s son locked in row with neighbour ‘over tennis court docket’ | UK | News | EUROtoday

A son of England cricket legend Colin Cowdrey has accused a neighbour of “terrorising” him with a marketing campaign of harassment akin to oriental water torture in a bid to wreck the sale of his £3.85m dwelling.

But Jeremy Cowdrey’s neighbour Vanessa Gibson is insisting she has executed nothing incorrect and says the son of the all-time batting nice is responsible of “ungentlemanly” behaviour for suing her.

Film producer Mr Cowdrey, whose dad skippered England, is locked in a bitter court docket battle with neighbour Mrs Gibson, who he blames for “lies” which he says have made his sprawling ten-acre nation home unsellable.

The pair had initially had a great “neighbourly” relationship, with Mrs Gibson serving to the cricketer’s son feed his geese, she mentioned. But they fell out after she purchased a strip of land in 2022, that means that she bizarrely owned a part of his tennis court docket at his Crowbourne Farm dwelling, in Goudhurst, Kent.

Mr Cowdrey claims she then launched into a bid to “extract money” from him, utilizing the disagreement over the strip and different spurious complaints as a way to jeopardise his try to promote up and transfer on.

Suing for malicious falsehood and harassment, Mr Cowdrey says her behaviour resulted in him shedding an agreed £3.85m sale of the home and has since prevented him transferring on along with his life.

Giving proof this week, he advised Judge Jane Evans-Gordon that Mrs Gibson had “terrorised” him and likened her fixed “clusterbomb” of complaints as akin to water torture.

“I likened it to the Japanese drip of water because it was like that,” he mentioned. “We are on the third anniversary of this. It’s been a really horrendous experience.”

However, Mrs Gibson, 55, representing herself at Central London County Court, denies Mr Cowdrey’s claims, says she solely raised legit points in regards to the property and that it’s in reality Mr Cowdrey who has behaved in an “ungentlemanly” approach.

The court docket heard Mrs Gibson, a former futures dealer, has lived within the space for a few years, however that Mr Cowdrey moved in after shopping for Crowbourne Farm in early 2022.

It is made up of a sprawling Grade II-listed farmhouse with its personal wine cellar, a separate visitor cottage, studio, barn and workshop, a quadruple automobile port and over ten acres of grounds, together with a tennis court docket, stables, woods and two lakes.

Mr Cowdrey advised the decide he had been warned in regards to the potential for bother along with his neighbour, who lives in a subsequent door barn conversion, earlier than he purchased it.

He mentioned he thought he might recover from any issues, however that inside a few months he realised the property was “not right” for him and determined to promote.

Viewings had been organized and patrons had been discovered, with a sale worth of £3.85m agreed, however he says the purchasers pulled out resulting from a string of emails despatched by Mrs Gibson.

He mentioned they instructed that the neighbours’ row over the tennis court docket was nonetheless ongoing, when in reality it had been settled when he agreed to fence it off and quit any declare to the strip she had purchased.

However, she had additionally emailed him, his lawyer and property agent with allegations referring to his proper to run water, electrical energy, sewage and cellphone companies throughout her land, his barrister, Brooke Lyne, mentioned.

She had additionally introduced up problems with flooding within the space, suggesting it might be right down to work executed by the earlier homeowners on Mr Cowdrey’s land.

She had acknowledged in her emails that she wished them delivered to the eye of any purchasers, with the end result that patrons had been nicely conscious of the neighbourhood dispute.

“It is the claimant’s case that the defendant launched a cynical campaign of harassment raising numerous spurious and false claims against him with the motivation of extracting financial gain from him,” she mentioned.

“The defendant’s communications alleged that there was a ‘potential dispute’ or that the earlier boundary dispute was unresolved, but this was clearly false and a cynical attempt to cause confusion and chaos as the claimant’s sale process developed.”

Mrs Gibson is combating his declare on the premise that she has “from time to time raised what she regards as perfectly reasonable and legitimate issues and concerns with the claimant and his legal team.”

Cross-examining Mr Cowdrey, who has since rented out his dwelling and moved away, she instructed that his purchaser may in reality have pulled out due to hovering rates of interest.

But Mr Cowdrey denied the declare, responding: “The buyer was so excited, but one by one, as these emails came through, he rang up and said ‘what the hell is going on?’

“The cause he pulled out was due to the emails that you’ve despatched by way of. It is nothing to do with rates of interest.”

Mrs Gibson told the court that she considered she had tried to address issues in the area in a “well mannered and neighbourly trend.”

“We had mentioned in a neighbourly approach over the gate these points,” she told Mr Cowdrey, accusing him of “not being truthful.”
Her emails had also been responses to his solicitor’s inquiries, she added.

Mr Cowdrey advised her: “You purchased the piece of land to get monetary acquire from me. It was disagreeable. I attempted to purchase that land from you. I requested you to say a worth. You would not.

“You wouldn’t talk to me and you terrorised me for months and months. At no stage would you consider dropping any of your baseless allegations even when they’re proven to be false.

“I wished to settle this throughout. I by no means wished to be right here.

“I didn’t want to spend three years of my life wasting time with solicitors, but I had no option.

“Why we’re right here is nothing to do with the strip, it is as a result of I am unable to promote my home.

“If you wouldn’t drop the allegations, I would have to come all the way here, which I find distasteful.”

Mrs Gibson responded: “I’m sorry you find it distasteful, I find it ungentlemanly.”

She mentioned she had had a “neighbourly relationship” with Mr Cowdrey and that she had helped him with drive upkeep and feeding his geese.

Denying that she had purchased the strip “underhandedly,” Mrs Gibson mentioned she discovered it “deeply upsetting” to be threatened with arrest if she stepped on it, though Mr Cowdrey mentioned he couldn’t keep in mind anybody making such a menace.

He added: “It doesn’t give me any pleasure…but I’m afraid to say you have a reputation out there. A lot of people are quite frightened of you.”

She put to him: “Are you saying the only reason your house is unsellable is because I live next door?”

He responded: “Until you drop the allegations I have been advised that there is no way I can sell the house.”

Mr Cowdrey says his home would now be price £3.7m absent Mrs Gibson’s allegations and so is suing for the £150,000 distinction between that and the £3.85m sale he agreed, plus at the least one other £35,000 in damages.

He is the second son of Colin, Lord Cowdrey, who was the primary cricketer to play 100 Tests and was the primary to be made a peer for his companies to the sport.

Lord Cowdrey was an impressive batsman, famed for his model and nonchalance each on and off the sphere, with one commentator saying he appeared to “charm rather than strike the ball” and a fellow England participant labelling him an “unbridled genius”.

His second son, Jeremy, labored as a City stockbroker for 20 years, later switching to working as a movie producer and serving to create the film ‘Summer in February’ in 2013, starring Dan Stevens of Downton Abbey fame.

Lord Cowdrey’s two different sons, Chris and Graham, went on to play cricket for Kent and Chris additionally noticed six Tests for England. He additionally had a daughter, Carolyn.

The trial continues.