15th
Feb 2021
The highly controversial ‘media darling’ multi-millionaire landlord Fergus Wilson, deemed at one time as Britain’s most successful buy to let landlord, reportedly told a councillor to go ‘kill himself’.
The claim from Ashford council was part of its evidence in court of against Wilson’s alleged decade long “campaign of harassment".
The council is applying to the High Court to be awarded a permanent injunction against the landlord to end his harassment which according to the authority has been ongoing since 2011.
The Kent Online news website reports that the court was told that Wilson’s apparent legitimate inquiries…… “would quickly turn to him constantly and repeatedly belittling, insulting and abusing councillors or council workers in an attempt to get his own way.”
The council alleges that was all part of his campaign which supposedly involved “a huge number of letters and emails”, along with numerous “phone calls and formal complaints against officers, councillors and legal representatives.”
Adam Solomon QC who represented the council told the court that the landlord’s actions and his overall behaviour had caused many of the staff feeling intimated and harassed as some of them were receiving daily emails from Wilson.
The court was also told that council leader Gerry Clarkson even received letters from the landlord at his to home, one of which suggesting he should "do all of the young people in Ashford a favour and commit suicide.”
The court heard that Wilson exposed one of the council's legal representatives to “a focused ordeal spanning years, much of which featured emails to her superiors, some of which were copied to as many as 44 people within the council” and in one instance made personal comments about her appearance.
However, Wilson’s legal representative, Andrew Deakin, claimed that the landlord’s letters, emails and phone calls "didn't cross the threshold of what would be considered harassment”.
He also made the point that councillors usually accept that they will face “the very real potential that individuals will write and express abhorrent expressions.”
He also added that sending letters to a third party about a person i.e. their manager should not be taken as harassment of the said person.
As both sides have now ended their cases a ruling should be forthcoming over the next few days.
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