Dispute over award leads to gardener’s ban from his plot
A PENSIONER has been banned from his communal garden after he embarked on a harassment campaign against a neighbour who picked up a “Borough In Bloom” prize that he had wanted to collect himself.
Michael Oram, 73, told a court he had been “sad” not to accept the prize, after pouring his “blood, sweat and tears and my own cost and energy” into the garden behind his Twickenham flat.
It led to a deterioration in relations between Oram and Jasmine Mcmurdo. The retiree, who used to run an agency that supplied domestic staff to Chelsea high society, appeared at Wimbledon magistrates’ court charged with causing criminal damage to grass belonging to his downstairs neighbour.
Oram, who was educated at Winchester College and volunteers at Kew Gardens, was cleared of that charge after magistrates ruled Ms Mcmurdo, 55, exaggerated the alleged destruction on Sept 27, last year.
However, Oram was convicted of causing her harassment between Jan 19 and July 31 last year, and sentenced to six weeks imprisonment, suspended for a year. He was given a two-year Criminal Behaviour Order which bans him from the gardens, and he must also pay £500 compensation to Ms Mcmurdo, plus £998 for damaging her floor, which he was convicted of deliberately flooding, and £500 costs.
Ms Mcmurdo had collected the silver prize from the mayor of Richmond-upon-thames last year. Oram told the court: “Ms Mcmurdo collected it and has been claiming it was a prize she gained, which I dispute.” Oram said she had left brusque messages on signs next to plants, and sent a further note objecting to “me reclining in my bathing costume in the summer”.
“It is insulting for a man of my age and my high birth and high education compared to some people in this case who can’t even spell properly,” he said.
Ms Mcmurdo, who works for the NHS, told the court: “I have suffered harassment over the years.”