My tree overhanging neighbours land, Can I prune it?

[Mick Dempsey]

A verbal warning is not worth the paper it’s written on.

[daltontrees]

13 hours ago, Drifter2406 said:

As soon as your hand or any part of you goes across the fence you are trespassing, might be easier to get a

tree surgeon if you really cannot speak to her or just tell her what has to be done for safety. 

I have a neighbour lean over my garden at the back a few times and cut my trees, had a go at him a couple of times and in the end I called the police because the trees were getting quite bad by then after him hacking them apart, police turned up and told me "As soon as any part of him comes onto my property ie over the fence he is trespassing and cutting your trees is criminal damage". They went over to his house and gave him a verbal warning and a proper ticking off.

Police were wrong about trespass.

Trespass is a wrong against property rights. Putting your hand in someone's airspace does not deprive them of the use of their property and is therefore not trespass. Either a criminal or a civil case against it would get laughed out of court, if it even managed to get into court in the first place.

Damage to encroaching trees is not criminal damage, it is a common law right going back centuries, as consolidated in the famous Lemmon v Webb case of late 1890s. But crossing the boundary to cut someone else's trees is wrong. Trespass wouldn't be the real issue.

I expect your neighbour has other problems.