Friday 18 November 2022 11:47 PM Millionaire fined £80,000 for axing neighbour's 100-year-old oak trees and ... trends now
A millionaire businessman has been fined £80,000 for chopping down his neighbour's oak trees to improve his river view.
Marketing guru Nick Baker, boss of a £100million firm, set his chainsaw-wielding gardeners to work on 16 protected trees in the garden of Olympic silver medal-winning sailor David Hunt, 88.
Mr Baker, 37, whose sprawling mansion is worth more than £5million, claimed he asked for permission to clear some untidy branches, because he was worried about 'storm damage', and was told he could cut them back as much as he wanted.
By the time his workmen had finished, the trees were reduced to stumps – meaning his view of the river and the many sailing boats there had improved. It will take a century to replace the oaks, the court heard.
Magistrates gave short shrift to Mr Baker's attempts to shift the blame on to his neighbour and gardeners, and fined him £80,000, plus £1,415 costs, after he pleaded guilty to contravening tree preservation regulations.
Mr Hunt, who won a silver medal for Great Britain in the 1972 Munich Olympics and sailed again at the Montreal Games four years later, denied his neighbour's claims that he had approved the felling of the oaks.
Chainsaw massacre: A view of Nick Baker’s nine-bedroom mansion from the remains of the oak trees
Water view: The area cleared of trees to the top-left of the waterfront
The costly incident took place in the wealthy Hampshire village of Warsash, where Mr Baker's nine-bedroom house lies next to widower Mr Hunt's million-pound home near the River Hamble. Portsmouth Magistrates' Court was told that 16 common oak trees at the bottom of Mr Hunt's garden, a
