Dylan Sadler v Antony Joyner
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Mr Richard Spearman |
| Judgment Date | 02 December 2020 |
| Neutral Citation | [2020] EWHC 3325 (QB) |
| Date | 02 December 2020 |
| Docket Number | Case No: QB-2019-004127 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division |
[2020] EWHC 3325 (QB)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
ROYAL COURTS OF JUSTICE
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
Mr Richard Spearman QC
(sitting as a Deputy Judge of the High Court)
Case No: QB-2019-004127
Mr A. Eardley (instructed by Penningtons Manches LLP) for the Claimant
Mr N. Leviseur (instructed by Samuels Solicitors LLP) for the Defendantts
Hearing dates: 2 December 2020
Approved Judgment
I direct that pursuant to CPR PD 39A para 6.1 no official shorthand note shall be taken of this Judgment and that copies of this version as handed down may be treated as authentic.
Mr Richard Spearman QC
Mr Richard Spearman QC:
This is a claim for libel and harassment. The libel claim is brought in respect of statements included in a press release issued by the Second Defendant and posted online at www.growndirect.co.uk, the website for Plants Galore Garden Centre (“the Press Release”).
The parties are described as follows in paragraphs 1–3 of the Particulars of Claim:
“1. The Claimant is an experienced solicitor who, since 2015, has been employed by the Environment Agency as a senior lawyer based at the Agency's offices in Exeter. His role is to prosecute serious environmental crimes. He has had a distinguished career as a public service lawyer, having previously been employed by the Army Legal Service, where he rose to the rank of Major, and by Plymouth City Council.
2. The First Defendant is the Company Secretary and a Director of the Second Defendant. At all material times, together with the two other Directors of the Second Defendant, Alfred and Mark Joyner, and another member of their family, the First Defendant was the owner of land known as Cockwells Nursery near Totnes, Devon (‘the Site’).
3. The Second Defendant is a private limited company which operates 3 garden centres in Devon under the brand name “Plants Galore”. At all material times the Second Defendant has promoted its business through a website at the address www.growndirect.co.uk (‘the Website’). According to the First Defendant himself, as at November 2018, the Website was receiving over 300,000 visits per year from the general public.”
The Defendants accept that the background to the claim and the Press Release is succinctly set out in paragraphs 4–7 of the Particulars of Claim as follows:
“4. From about March 2015 the Site was leased to a David Weeks who, together with his business partner Steven Loveridge, wished to operate a waste recycling business there. The First Defendant terminated or purported to terminate the lease in about January 2016 upon learning that Mr Loveridge had been convicted for an unrelated drugs offence, but the waste that had been brought on to the Site remained there. On 16 May 2016 a major fire broke out at the site and burned for some 5 days.
5. In 2018, the Environment Agency prosecuted the First Defendant, Mr Weeks and Mr Loveridge for environmental offences committed at the Site. Mr Weeks and Mr Loveridge both pleaded guilty and were sentenced at Plymouth Magistrates Court on 15 May 2018. The First Defendant was charged with two offences: (1) together with Mr Weeks and Mr Loveridge, knowingly causing or knowingly permitting the carrying on of a waste operation at the Site between 19 February 2015 and 16 May 2016 without an environmental permit being in force, contrary to regulations 38(1)(b) and 12(l)(b) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 (‘Count 1’); and (2) keeping controlled waste at the site between 11 January 2016 and 19 May 2016 in a manner likely to cause pollution of the environment or harm to human health, contrary to sections 33(6) and 33(1)(c) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 [(‘Count 2’)].
6. The First Defendant initially pleaded not guilty and the case was sent to the Crown Court. On 19 November 2018, the First Defendant pleaded guilty to Count 2, for which he was fined £3,600, ordered to pay £4,250 to Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, and ordered to pay £5,000 prosecution costs. Count 1 was left to lie on the Court file.
7. The Claimant was the lawyer responsible for bringing the prosecution on behalf of the Environment Agency.”
Under the heading “Libel”, paragraph 8 of the Particulars of Claim pleads as follows:
“From about 22 November 2018 until a date unknown but believed to be in late October or early November 2019, the Defendants published or caused to be published on the Website, to a large but presently unquantifiable number of readers, a press release (‘the Press 2 12 Release’) containing the following statements which referred to and were defamatory of the Claimant:
“[15] … the EA strangely chose to prosecute one of the tour landlords — Tony Joyner — on a charge that he was involved in bringing wood on to the site.
[16] After a nine month legal battle this criminal charge was then dropped by the EA just before trial when the evidence showed the landlords were clearly not involved in bringing wood on to site. The EA should never have brought this charge and it was thrown out by their own legal expert!! This resulted in a waste of £6000 of legal costs being incurred for no reason by the EA in trying to bring a false charge.
[17] Sadly, during the process of bringing this charge against the landowners, the main culprit the tenant Steve Loveridge, was given a more lenient sentence as an inducement to aid the EA in the prosecution of the landowners. This decision by the EA to reward a criminal with a lesser sentence has to be questioned in the light of events. The landowners are concerned that “evidence” was then invented by Steve Loveridge to aid the prosecution as a result of this EA inducement of a convicted criminal.
[18] As this charge was dropped anyway then this “evidence” was never relied on — but it has to be a questionable way for the EA to proceed in order to gain a conviction — to promise a known criminal — serving a prison sentence — a lesser sentence for another crime if he can “produce testimony” good enough to prosecute the innocent landowner. What a way to carry on! Is this the way we expect the solicitor for the EA to behave?
[27(a)]… Questions should be asked of Dylan Sadler solicitor for the EA about his handling of this case and the tactics used so far against the landlords and his encouragement to convicted criminal Steve Loveridge to “produce evidence” against the landlord in return for a lesser sentence — this appears a vindictive prosecution of a landlord from a solicitor who is willing to go to any length to gain a conviction whether fair or not. Many thousands of pounds of government money has been wasted by Dylan Sadler when the major charge brought against Tony Joyner was dropped after the EA barrister advised there was no chance of successful prosecution. Why was this charge brought in the first place? Is he suitable for this position at the EA?””
The words complained of form only part of a much longer text. The Press Release does not contain any paragraph numbers. I have added them for ease of reference. The full Press Release contains 30 paragraphs, and there are four sub-paragraphs in total within [27].
As I was addressed on much of that additional text during the course of the argument before me, it is convenient to set it out as well. It reads as follows (bold text as in the original):
“ PRESS RELEASE by Joyners Plants Ltd
(Plants Galore Garden Centres)
Environment Agency facing “an inconvenient truth” about waste transfer station at Cockwells Nursery, Totnes
[1] (We have sent this press release to local media outlets, local south hams Councillors, Devon County Councillors and our member of parliament to ensure that both sides to this story are heard and a balanced, fair view is formed of events at Cockwells Nursery following recent publicity in the press and Radio. We are available for interview as we think this story needs to be in the public domain and searching questions need to be asked of the Environmental Agency).
[2] This week Tony Joyner of Plants Galore Garden Centres was fined at Exeter Court for being an owner in charge of waste left on a nursery site he co-owned with three other family members, after a tenant renting the land was suddenly sent to prison.
[3] The Environmental Agency role in building up the waste on site and their lack of action to clear the site has not been made public until now.
[4] The owners of Joyners Plants need to make it clear that the Environmental Agency knew all along about the build up of waste wood on site at Cockwells Nursery by the tenants but chose to do nothing. The EA failed to force the tenants to clear this waste wood from the nursery — as is their legal responsibility and duty when the tenants were on site.
[5] On October 2nd 2015 at a key “on site” meeting at Cockwells Nursery, the EA along with Devon County Council Enforcement Agency and South Hams Enforcement all agreed to “turn a blind eye” to 10,000 tonnes of waste wood on site at Cockwells Nursery when the tenants promised to make a planning application for a waste transfer station. This waste transfer station would in effect solve the problem and make the thousands of tonnes of illegal waste on site “legal”.
[6] The meeting was so secret that not even the landlords – Joyners Plants Ltd — were informed of the meeting, or the secret agreement reached by all parties to allow the waste wood to remain on site – which was clearly illegal and well over the waste levels permitted on the...
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