A DOCTOR allegedly tore down a privacy fence after accusing her neighbours of stealing a 20ft piece of land between their homes.
Dr Veena Paes, who specialises in public health research, is embroiled in a bitter court battle with three sets of neighbours in her leafy suburban street accusing them of ganging up for a “land grab” of her garden.
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Her neighbours – Thomas and Florence Benton, Robert Gilder and Althea D’Lima, and and Kaluarachige and Mohammed Shaffi – own three corner plot properties in Trevelyan Road, Tooting, South London.
Tensions boiled over in the summer of 2017 when Dr Paes was accused of ripping down a trellis while “in a fit of rage when you were not getting your way”.
But speaking from the witness box at Central London County Court when the allegation was levelled at her, she replied: “The trellis was already falling down.”
Dr Paes, along with her finance boss husband Melanius, says there has been a “conspiracy” to “trespass” on the strip of land, which separates their four properties.
The millionaire couple claim to have carried out extensive historical research into house deeds, including reviewing documents back to Victorian times, and say they own the 84ft x 20ft strip of land which gives them access into their back garden.
Meanwhile, the three sets of neighbours seek a court ruling that they are the true owners of or have gained adverse possession – or squatters’ rights – by use of the strip as part of their property over many years.
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 a side wall and garden of her property.
Dr Paes first began complaining of “encroachment” seven years ago.
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When HR executives Mr Gilder and Ms D’Lima moved into adjoining Bickersteth Road, she immediately wrote them a letter warning them about the dangers of “criminal trespass”.
But the Paes’ now claim their neighbours have wrongfully locked them out of the strip by building new fencing and removing a gate they previously used to access the land and maintain their garden wall.
James Sandham, the barrister representing their neighbours, accused Dr Paes of writing the letter to Mr Gilder and Ms D’Lima with the aim of trying to “manipulate and bully” her new neighbours.
In May 2016, Dr Paes also wrote to a neighbour who has since moved, complaining about a new fence “encroaching” on her land, the court heard.
Mr Sandham added: “Similar letters followed to Mr and Mrs Shaffi at number 13 and Mr Gilder and Ms D’Lima on July 1, 2016.
“There was then some email correspondence between Dr Paes and Mr Gilder and Ms D’Lima in which she alleged ‘criminal trespass’ was occurring.”
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Tensions boiled over again when Mr Gilder and Ms D’Lima “called the police on Dr Paes”, the court heard.
Mr Sandham continued: “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.
“When you don’t get your own way, you start writing letters and try bullying and coercing people into doing what you want.”
Dr Paes replied: “It was the other way round, we were being harassed.”
She also insisted there is a “conspiracy” between the owners of her neighbouring properties at numbers nine, 11 and 13.
Mr Sandham then told the court: “You were unable to get what you wanted.
“What you wanted was separate access in order to develop your back garden.”
Addressing the judge, he added: “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 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, before a gate giving the Paes access was also later removed, the court heard.
She 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.”
Quizzing her, 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?”
The doctor replied: “To deprive us of access to our land.”
The barrister then suggested Dr Paes had “dramatised” the summer 2015 tension with her neighbours, insisting “there was no concerted effort by your neighbours to steal your land”.
Asked why she had not 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”.
He added: “Our case is straightforward: the conveyancing and other documents at the time the properties were created is determinative in our favour.”
After four days in court, Recorder Green reserved his judgment in the case.
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