I endured five years of hell from nightmare neighbours after my son kicked a ... trends now

A father sued for storming into his high-flying neighbours' garden after they confiscated his son's football revealed tonight the legal row has been 'five years of hell' for his family. 

Chaim Adler, 35, is considering appealing against a county court ruling that he harassed lawyer Warren Bergson and his psychologist wife Dr Edel McAndrew-Bergson, who refused to hand back his eight-year-old son's ball after it landed in their garden in Golders Green, north London. 

Now the father of five has told MailOnline of the impact on his family, and how he has already paid out £40,000 in legal fees on top of the further £20,000 he is due to pay after a judge ruled in his neighbours' favour.

He said: 'The last five years have just been hell for me and my family. The neighbours instigated all of this, and they have said things that did not happen. 

'I am from a family of eight who grew up there, and there was never any problems.

'I only spoke to them once, so I do not see how that is harassment. I will consider appealing against that charge. How can it be harassment when we only spoke once.'

The neighbours sued Adler over trespassing and harassment which saw a judge award £19,800 in damages.

Adler said: 'He shouted at my son and left him in tears. He was very upset and I went round to the house to speak to him and get the ball back.

'My aunt lives in the house and she had given us permission to go into the garden at any time. The Bergson's lived in a granny flat at the end of the garden.

'The first time the ball went over I was not even at the house but when he shouted at my son and refused to hand it back I went across to ask for it back. I tried to ask nicely.'

Giving judgment, Judge Stephen Hellman said fire alarm company boss Mr Adler had been provoked by the Bergsons' actions in not giving back the ball but he had gone too far.

'Chaim Adler's behaviour was aggressive, humiliating and intimidating,' he said at Mayors and City County Court. 'This behaviour goes beyond that which merely causes upset.'

Adler had been visiting his mother Esther Adler, when the dispute started nearly six year ago who today told MailOnline: 'We have lived here for 40 years and never had any problems until the Bergsons moved in to their flat.

'This whole thing should never have come to court. We did not want to go to court, but they were determined to sue.

'I don't know how he will find the £20,000 to pay them. It is just ridiculous. My son is fuming.'

She added: 'We do not have any choice but to pay. We have had to have solicitors and they have had to be paid. This should never have come to court and the judge was wrong in what he said. They were not nice people. 

In a previous ruling, Judge Hellman said the court row had been an 'unhappy case about a neighbours' dispute that got out of hand' after the Bergsons moved in next door to Mr Adler's parents in 2017.

Mr Adler's parents, Zavy, 73, and Esther Adler, 69, had lived in their home in Golders Green for 40 years, bringing up their kids there.

But trouble brewed after Dr

read more from dailymail.....