Pictured, woman who took out court order against PM
Conspiracy theorist in blitz of claims
THIS is the Covid conspiracy theorist who secured a £535 court judgment against ‘wrongdoer’ Boris Johnson.
Yvonne Hobbs also launched a blizzard of court claims against Home Secretary Priti Patel for ‘extortion’, Health Secretary Matt Hancock for causing ‘harm’ and Chancellor Rishi Sunak for ‘fraud’.
Yesterday the courts service faced embarrassment about why the serial litigant was granted a county court judgment against the Prime Minister.
Miss Hobbs, 59, of Leicestershire, claimed to the Money Claim Online service that Mr Johnson owed her an unpaid debt of £535.
When letters to Downing Street apparently went unanswered, a default county court judgment was issued against him on October 26. Yesterday, as No10 lawyers succeeded in getting the ‘vexatious and spurious claim’ struck out as an abuse of the court, extraordinary details emerged of Miss Hobbs’ obsession with suing ministers and corporations. Barrister Henry
Hendron, who was instructed by Miss Hobbs in July 2015 but was later taken to the Bar Standards Board after she complained about him, said: ‘She came to me after five former barristers.
‘My instructions were to sue her former solicitors. There is no point in trying to explain anything to her. She was unrelenting.’
Miss Hobbs has launched at least three court cases against Mr Johnson for ‘defamation’ and breaching her ‘rights as a free person’ over his imposition of the first Covid lockdown in March 2020.
She peppered her claim forms with archaic language such as ‘my body, my soul... my kith and kin’.
Miss Hobbs lives in the Leicestershire village of Ashby Parva, on the outskirts of Lutterworth, on a smallholding where she keeps alpacas. Neighbours said she was ‘forever telling people they owe her money’.
A local businesswoman said: ‘The fact that she has sued the Prime Minister doesn’t surprise me one bit.
‘Not many people have a good word to say about her. She falls out with anyone and everyone.’
Miss Hobbs declined to comment when asked yesterday what Mr Johnson had done to offend her.
She uses a variety of aliases online and posts comments in conspiracy theory chatrooms.
Several years ago she is believed to have worked as senior finance officer for the charity Adoption UK. After her contract was terminated, she took it to an employment tribunal and lost.
Last November, she demanded £535 from Priti Patel at the Home Office for extortion and ‘trespass on my life, liberty and estate’. She added the Home Secretary ‘threatens harm’ in order to gain acquiescence to ‘drug injection’.
Matt Hancock at the Department of Health and Social Care had made ‘false utterances’ and ‘trespassed on’ her ‘body fluids, temperature and DNA’, another claim stated.
She sued Rishi Sunak for ‘defaming’ her by claiming that she, as a taxpayer, must pay for ‘a scheme to “eat out”’, a reference to the Chancellor’s Eat Out to Help Out initiative. She demanded ‘my property to be returned to me’ and said she will charge him £10million a day until it is.
The county court money claims service is what many used to know as the ‘small claims court’, and can be used by anyone to chase a debt.
Once an application is lodged, and a fee paid, the court asks the alleged debtor to respond. If they don’t, the case is automatically resolved in favour of the applicant.
In the case of the other ministers, it is likely lawyers in their departments respond robustly and the claims were struck out.
Last night No10 said: ‘The claim has been struck out, deemed “totally without merit” and the Government awarded its costs.’ ■ Details of who paid for Boris Johnson’s lavish flat refurbishment are due to be revealed later this month. The Prime Minister’s new ministerial standards adviser, Lord Geidt, told MPs he was ‘determined’ to release the overdue list of ministers’ interests before the end of May.
He said that alongside the document he will publish his report into the declaration of any donations received by Mr Johnson to redecorate his Downing Street flat.
‘My life, liberty and estate’