Farmer’s dirty protest
Landowner dumps five tons of soil outside courthouse in rage over EIGHT year legal wrangle
A WEALTHY landowner staged an astonishing protest against the judicial system by dumping five tons of mud outside a court yesterday.
Farmer Charles Hirons, 49, was charged with criminal damage after using his tractor and muck spreader to bury the front steps of Derby Crown Court under 2ft of earth.
A cardboard sign left in the window of the tractor read: ‘What a shame!!! What a shame to have to resort to this, today is a personal protest against the severely flawed judicial system that has consistantly [sic] failed to listen to simple truth & reason.
‘Sorry for any inconvenience caused (to the general public).’
The bottom of the sign instructed people to make an internet search for law firm Walter Scott And Ross, which was shut down in 2009. Mr Hirons has been embroiled in a legal battle since the Derbyshire-based firm was closed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) over ‘serious financial irregularities’.
More than 60 people were left in financial limbo following its closure, claiming they never received deeds to properties, vital casework and details of trust funds.
The SRA concluded that the firm’s partners, Alastair Ross and Darrell Holmes, had used clients’ accounts for their own purposes.
Mr Hirons employed the solicitors to represent him in a disputed division of a family estate, and said that it was unresolved when the firm closed, leaving him tens of thousands of pounds out of pocket. It is believed that nearly eight years after the law firm was shut down, Mr Hirons’ affairs are still not resolved, resulting in his frustrated protest at the courthouse.
Last night the farmer admitted dumping the huge pile of muck outside the court but said he did so as part of a ‘peaceful protest’. Speaking after his release from the police station, he said: ‘There is a much bigger story here about greed and corruption of the judicial system. This is what was supposed to be a peaceful protest.
‘I did it because the higher powers just hide behind emails. The working man is being persecuted in this country. This is all an accumulation of 30 years of conflicts of interest and trauma.’
The wealthy farmer, married to Lynne, 42, is well known within the horse-riding world and hosts British Eventing equestrian fixtures at his sprawling Draycott House estate in Derbyshire. The couple have four children.
Following his protest, dozens of street cleaners spent three hours removing the mess, which was tested and found to be dirt rather than, as first suspected, manure.
An SRA spokesman said the ‘intervention’ in the law firm was concluded in 2010. She said: ‘At that time, former clients were written to and informed of the intervention and invited to instruct where they wished their documents to be sent to or informed their documents would be placed in the SRA archives, as is normal practice.
‘Former clients who were owed money were paid out by the compensation fund. A total of just under £1million has been paid to Walter Scott And Ross clients.’