A neighbour has been convicted after pursuing a harassment campaign against a City lawyer and his businesswoman wife over plans to transform their new home into a multi-million-pound development.

Business consultant Robin Christie, 65, padlocked his bike to a makeshift gate the couple erected at the development in the Hampton Village conservation area in south-west London. 

He also accused neighbour Julia Stafford of having ‘ploughed on like an angry Zimbabwean land grabber’ – while video footage shown in court depicted her yelling at him to ‘Get off my land’.

Solicitor Samuel Tempest Brooks, 43, and his company director wife Ms Stafford, also 43, had paid £850,000 for an Edwardian former waterworks.

They secured council planning permission on appeal – despite Christie’s objections – for a subterranean development and two-storey extension at the unoccupied detached property, with the potential to make it worth millions of pounds.

Christie’s fellow housing association residents of Hill House Drive also objected to the proposals and the couple’s determination to demolish a boundary wall.

That was intended to create gated access through the residents’ close, with the threatened loss of parking spaces.

The residents were eventually victorious and works ground to a halt, with the wall demolition application rejected last June – and the property has since gone back on the market for £999,950.

Robin Christie, 65, is pictured leaving Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court – he has been convicted of harassment after a row with neighbours over their planning application

Married couple Julia Stafford and Samuel Tempest Brooks had paid £850,000 for an Edwardian former waterworks property in Hampton Village, south-west London

But Christie has now been convicted at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court of harassing Ms Stafford between July 1 and September 28 2024 – with a judge describing his behaviour as ‘arrogant and intimidating’. He has been bailed for probation reports.

The court heard how Christie had summonsed the Richmond-upon-Thames council leader Gareth Roberts, to confirm the couple, especially project manager Ms Stafford, were incorrect in trying to force through the gated access.

Mr Roberts told the two-day trial: ‘The wall was in the conservation area and she had no permission to demolish this wall. She believed it was implicit she could demolish the wall, but that was not the case.

‘She was agitated and angry and would stress her opinion that she was correct. It would have been a breach of planning if she demolished the wall.’

The residents once rushed to block the wall with their cars when a large digger truck and works crew, hired by the couple, arrived in their cul-de-sac to demolish it.

Tempers flared on July 5 2024 when Ms Stafford began erecting security fencing on the residents’ side of the dividing brick wall, saying her land extended into Hill House Drive.

She started digging up a border of plants with her tree surgeon when Christie and a female neighbour approached.

Ms Stafford told the trial: ‘They began objecting to me erecting fencing and they were also verbally abusive. They told me I didn’t have permission and that I was causing problems and being a nuisance.

The married couple’s home in the conservation area was at the centre of the planning row

‘Robin Christie was inciting it. He was the instigator behind it and representing himself as some sort of legal authority and that he knew what he was talking about.

‘He was falsely claiming that I didn’t own the land and had no right to erect the fencing and he followed me through a side gate onto the land I physically own.

‘There were a lot of people verbally abusing me and I escaped the situation and removed myself to have some breathing space.

‘The fencing was to protect people from the construction site and prevent them walking into an unsafe area.

‘He was in my face and refusing to leave – I felt very threatened, violated and exposed and I kept being accused of criminal damage.’

Ms Stafford complained Christie followed her onto her property and the court viewed footage she recorded in which she shouted at him: ‘Get off my land.’

She added: ‘I am in full panic mode by now. Being followed onto my land is very threatening to me.

‘When I went back to the fence it had been taken down. I put it back up and they took it down again.’

Business consultant Robin Christie padlocked his bike to a makeshift gate erected by neighbours in the Hampton Village conservation area

After the couple returned from a Greek family holiday Julia again began erecting the fencing on July 22.

She said: ‘Robin Christie kept getting in my way, between the wall and the fence. He wanted to make it look like I was putting him in physical danger so it could be videoed as if I was assaulting him.’

A section of fence fell crashing to the ground as neighbours gathered around recording the dispute.

She added: ‘Robin Christie was pushing it down as much as he could and I could not hold on anymore and I recall him ramming the fence into my legs.

‘When the police came I told them I had been hurt. I had a cut on my foot and hand and the next day my legs were covered in bruises.

‘I was shocked and disgusted that nobody came to help me and the police told me if I reinstated the fence they would arrest me for breach of the peace.’

In her judgement following the verdict finding Christie guilty, Deputy District Judge Patricia Evans said: ‘He took exception to their planning permission and where she placed the fence. His behaviour was arrogant and intimidating when marching into her garden.

‘He can be seen pushing against the complainant and in the scuffle her hands and legs were hurt.

Robin Christie’s home is shown above and the site of the disputed wall below

‘Getting into a tussle over fencing, Mr Christie was completely losing perspective and behaving in a high-handed manner.’

Christie had also sent a letter to leading City firm McFarlanes, where Mr Brooks was a partner, complaining about his behaviour – at a time when the couple were in Greece with their young son and daughter.

Mr Brooks told the court: ‘It was intended as a threat to coerce me to do what he wanted. It was absurd faux legalise.’

Christie made references to the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Mr Brooks’ wife, with Mr Brooks adding: ‘It was intended to damage my career and cause the loss of all my income. I thought it was hysterical nonsense.

‘The gist was that my actions at the site implicated me in criminal damage and wider poor behaviour that made me liable to SRA sanction in the defendant’s view. The contents were utter bilge.’

Judge Evans ruled: ‘There is nothing conciliatory in the letter. The tone is unpleasant and it also increased Ms Stafford’s anxiety and she said in evidence she felt she was suffering PTSD.’

At one point, Ms Stafford put together a makeshift gate out of two fence panels and padlocked it, but Christie then attached his bike plus locks of his own to prevent her getting through.

This prompted tit-for-tat reprisals with Ms Stafford securing Christie’s bike to the fence with her own lock, culminating in her using a metal cutter and borrowed axle grinder to cut out the whole section.

Ms Stafford and Mr Brooks told Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court of the distress they endured

She said: ‘His bike with four locks attached to the fence barricaded me out of the property. It prevented me from opening it and accessing the side path to my house.

‘Every day I was verbally abused and it was like living in a cage. I was accosted by Robin Christie and two women telling me if I removed the locks it was criminal damage. I realised I had a cage built around me and that was the most traumatic day.

‘I burst into tears and called the police. I did not know what to do and it was the most dehumanising experience to be in a cage treated like an animal.

‘I’m pretty sure I had a panic attack. This was supposed to be a safe family home, but I was under constant threat from Robin Christie.’

She received a fixed penalty fine from the Metropolitan Police for cutting through one of Christie’s wire bike locks, Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court heard.

Ms Stafford said: ‘I developed PTSD and became hyper-vigilant. I had insomnia and was terrified of arrest and hated all cameras and photos and became very secluded from friends and family.

‘The fact I couldn’t have a safe family home made me ashamed that I couldn’t protect my family from another man trying to control.

‘My son watched his mother be attacked and threatened with arrest, my daughter was afraid and the family dog was terrified. Myself and my husband struggled to find a way to get people to help us.

Robin Christie (pictured) and fellow residents’ association members objected to the plans

‘He (Christie) is obsessed with me and the harassment started years before. He objected to our planning application and was fixated on me and the property.’

Judge Evans said of Christie: ‘Placing the bike and multiple locks is an act of harassment. Putting a lock on someone’s property and then watching them so he and the community can get their own way.

‘He was so busy championing the cause of the neighbours he lost perspective and pursued with increasing determination.’

Christie himself told the trial: ‘I grew into becoming the spokesperson for the residents. I was the calmest head and sought to seek solutions and had no personal issue with Ms Stafford.

‘This was a community trying to overcome an issue with someone difficult to deal with.

‘Ms Stafford was hacking away at the plants quite aggressively and was quite rude and abusive to people standing there, accusing them of bad things.

‘The residents had looked after that area and paid for its maintenance, but Ms Stafford was in an aggressive mood and did not want to hear sense.

‘She was walking up and down muttering something like “little stupid people” and the fence was later moved during a storm because it was dangerous.

The couple’s property, seen above with Mr Christie’s to the bottom right, is now back on the market, Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court was told

‘The letter I sent to her husband was not threatening. I was asking him to be accountable as a solicitor and human being because we had to come to some solution. They had grabbed land and taken possession of land.

‘I did not push the fence into her, I was trying to stabilise it and she banged the fence into me. The police then picked up the fence and threw it back over her wall.

‘She came back an hour later and reinstated the side gate, which she called a cage when giving evidence. She’s put the fence on land she does not own.’

He insisted there was ‘no harassment’ and ‘no reason to put this fence up on our side of the wall’, adding: ‘The fence was 8ft into our land. This was a trespass.’

First-time offender Christie is now scheduled to be sentenced next month.