To poison my neighbour's tree

[Mike1234]

Judge: You planned meticulously. You went into your own garden that night armed with a spade didn't you?

Me: Yes your honour

Judge: You approached your fence, where just on the other side was a magnificent 25M tall Leylandii conifer called Alice. Didn't you?

Me: Yes your honour

Judge: Alice belonged to your neighbour and you deliberately dug a hole in your own garden next to the fence to expose Alice's poor roots. Didn't You?

Judge: You drilled a hole into a root and poured in some concentrated Glphosate didn't you?

Me: Yes your honour

Judge: It was a SAVAGE act of cruelty. You poisoned Alice to death!!! And you will be punished. I don't CARE if it was causing your garden to be in shade 24 hours per day. You WILL BE PUNISHED !

 

So has anyone been to court before charged with criminal damage (presumably). What happened I wonder? How big a fine (or worse) ? The only case I can think of was when a pair of idiots went out with a chainsaw and chopped down a very well known tree (in the north-east ?). Given the anger in the community and across the country, I'm guessing they might have got some jail time for that. But what about in a dispute between neighbours. How much could I be sued for ? Would the police care? etc etc...

[peds]

Don't forget to read the first instalment of this story here:

 

 

 

[Steve Bullman]

This is 100% jail time. Be wise to start prepping yourself now. I suggest starting off with a small carrot or similar 

[Mike1234]

I wrote it so I already read it. That was a few years ago. Always great when you get reminded of 3 year old posts - thanks for that !

 

P.S. Yes it is indeed the same lovely tree.

Edited Thursday at 22:08 by Mike1234

[Haironyourchest]

It would be a pity if that tree blew over at night in a storm, into your property. Or even was stressed enough to damage the root system and end up leaning into your property. That would really be a dangerous situation. No way the neighbor could argue about that.

[Mike1234]

1 minute ago, Haironyourchest said:

It would be a pity if that tree blew over at night in a storm, into your property. Or even was stressed enough to damage the root system and end up leaning into your property. That would really be a dangerous situation. No way the neighbor could argue about that.

That'd be great. Would be allowed to bring it down then I think as it'd be over the fence.

 

The kindness exuding is making me wonder if I asked in the right place.

[Steve Bullman]

You’re essentially asking on a professional tree surgery forum how much trouble you’ll get in for wilfully damaging a tree you don’t like, whilst simultaneously being confused if you are in the right place? 🤦🏻

[scbk]

I know of a guy, someone living maybe a mile away planted some conifers (spruce I think it was) along the side of the road on their boundary, blocking the nice view for the public.

So him and another local made a pact to go out at night, and they would start at either end felling the trees, and meet in the middle.

 

They never got it finished, but the trees owners did get the police out when they discovered it, no one was caught.

[Peter 1955]

I can't remember if I've told this story here, but apologies if I'm repeating myself. My apprentice ( AKA Aged Parent ) and I spent a happy Sunday morning removing one dead tree stump, and one very unhealthy one from a client's garden. He was going off to play golf, so paid us before we'd finished ( we'd done work for him before ) and once we were done, we enjoyed our Tesco meal deals for dinner in the sun in the car park. 

Monday morning, my phone's red hot! According to our client he'd been " tidying up after us ", when the beautiful laurel bush next door " just fell over in slow motion ". The ones we'd been dealing with were about ten or twelve feet from this, by the way. 

It turns out the bush had a fine root structure at the neighbour's side, but one lone root at our client's side. 

Which he'd chopped through, in his " tidying ". His neighbour was not happy, and the longer they had to look at their pride and joy lying across the lawn, the less happy they were becoming, so off we went again on a Fire Engine job. 

Long story short, nobody home at either house, so we removed the evidence, and sent him a bill. There is a footnote to this tale. We returned to trim the hedge between them later on,  and where his shed was, it was impossible to trim from his side, even by lying on the shed roof upside down. As we left, it was obvious that neighbour was home, so we politely knocked on the door, and asked if we could pop in for five minutes to trim it from her side, which would in all honesty have improved her side greatly. Her response? 

" I wouldn't p**s on him if he were on fire ". We took that as a " No", and went home.