My friends will ‘thrash you’ , tycoon told gardener
A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE property tycoon has been accused of threatening to ‘thrash’ an award-winning landscape gardener in front of his ‘fragrant wife’. Mark Harrison is said to have told Alasdair Cameron he would send ‘two of my friends from Manchester’ to ‘administer an education’ and ‘thrash it out’ – adding: ‘Thrash being the operative word.’
They fell out over a £650,000 bill for work at Mr Harrison’s £8.5million home and are now pitted against each other at the High Court in London. Mr Cameron taped the calls in which his client made the threats.
Mr Harrison is urging judges to make him reveal who the recordings have allegedly been shared with. He says he missed out on a major deal because the exchanges were known of within the property industry, court documents say.
Mr Harrison, chief executive of a property management and investment firm, hired Alasdair Cameron Landscaping to design and carry out work at his home in Kingstonupon-Thames, south-west London.
Mr Cameron’s barrister Kate wilson said in documents put before the High Court that her client recorded calls on May 7, 2022, in which, Ms wilson said: ‘Mr Harrison was aggressive and made serious threats, including of physical violence, to Mr Cameron and his family’. in one call, Mr Harrison is said to have told Mr Cameron: ‘i will send some people to pay you a visit you and your family will never forget.’
robin Hopkins, representing Mr Cameron at a pre-trial hearing said he denies sharing the calls, other than lawfully with friends and family because he feared for his safety.
Mr Hopkins said: ‘Mr Harrison said he would “thrash it out – thrash being the operative word” in front of Mr Cameron’s “fragrant wife”.’
Mr Harrison’s barrister Nikolaus Grubeck said his client had ‘allowed his anger to get the better of him and made a number of ill-judged comments’. He denied they amounted to a serious threat.
Mr Grubeck added: ‘Mr Harrison believes the recordings are to blame for his firm losing out on a deal to buy a shopping centre in Chester.’
The case will return for a full trial at a later date.
‘A visit you will never forget’