Fife Royal Marine wins home demolition fight

COURT ACTION: Inverkeithing home demolished while he was on service overseas

I was beset by disbelief, horror and sadness that it was gone. WARRANT OFFICER ROSS HUNT

A Royal Marine has won a court battle after his home was demolished by mistake when he was abroad on active service.

Those responsible for knocking it down claimed the house was a wreck and opposed his claim for damages.

The property, a former pub, was next to the derelict Inverkeithing paper mill, which was demolished in September 2012.

Warrant Officer Ross Hunt’s home was flattened as well.

After a long-running court case he has been awarded a total of £67,500 in damages as well as his legal costs.

Mr Hunt, 38, bought the building, consisting of the former pub and his upstairs flat, for £150,000 in 2004 and it was unoccupied when his career took him out of Scotland.

Mr Hunt intended to return to live there when he took up the role of bandmaster for the Royal Marines Scotland Band.

He is currently based in Portsmouth as bandmaster at the RM School of Music.

At a hearing at Dunfermline Sheriff Court last year, Mr Hunt recalled receiving a phone call from a friend with the news.

He returned to Scotland a few weeks later. He told the hearing: “I don’t mind saying I broke down. I was beset by disbelief, horror and sadness that it was gone.”

Andrew Davidson, Colin Dempster and Chris Marsden, all of Ernst & Young, as joint receivers of Inveresk, former owners of the paper mill, defended the action.

The Quayside Inn, at Harbour Place, was previously known as Ye Olde Foresters Arms and had been a pub since 1873.

The last time Mr Hunt saw inside the flat was in 2010. The property was boarded up after youths had broken into the bar several times.

In August 2012 he visited Scotland ahead of his planned return to work at Rosyth at the start of 2013. He did not enter the property but was “content” with the way the building looked.

In a written judgment just released, Sheriff Craig McSherry awarded £65,000 damages for the property, £2,500 for contents and £2,000 for the cost of clearing the remaining rubble.

Ross’ solicitor Jonathan Matheson Dear said: “A simple check of the Land Registers would have disclosed that he was the proprietor of the building.”

He added: “His distress at the loss of his property was aggravated by the fact that at no time was he given any kind of apology. Indeed, it was implied by them that because it was alleged that the building was extremely dilapidated that they had done him a “favour” in destroying it and that they had enhanced the value of the site as a consequence.

“The evidence led at court did not, however, support this allegation . . .”

Picture: Deadline News. Warrant Officer Ross Hunt won a court battle after his home was demolished.