Swindon Borough Council v Redpath
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Lord Justice Rix,Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury,Lord Justice Carnwath |
| Judgment Date | 11 September 2009 |
| Neutral Citation | [2009] EWCA Civ 943 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
| Docket Number | Case No: B2/2009/0479 |
| Date | 11 September 2009 |
[2009] EWCA Civ 943
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE
COURT OF APPEAL (CIVIL DIVISION)
ON APPEAL FROM THE SWINDON COUNTY COURT
HIS HONOUR JUDGE WADE
Before: Lord Justice Rix
Lord Neuberger Of Abbotsbury
and
Lord Justice Carnwath
Case No: B2/2009/0479
5SN00237
Mr Jan Luba QC and Miss Yinka Adedeji (instructed by Shearer & Co) for the Appellant / Defendant
Mr Andrew Arden QC and Mr Andrew Dymond (instructed by Swindon Borough Council) for the Respondent / Claimant
Hearing date : Tuesday 12th May 2009
Lord Justice Rix :
The primary issue in this appeal relates to the meaning of “housing-related conduct” in section 153A(1) of the Housing Act 1996. In effect, was there a sufficient nexus between the local authority and its ex-tenant in respect of his anti-social behaviour against victims in the neighbourhood where he used to live so as to justify, in jurisdictional terms, the local authority's continuing pursuit of a further anti-social behaviour injunction (“ASBI”) against its ex-tenant? “Housing-related” is there defined as follows:
““housing-related” means directly or indirectly relating to or affecting the housing management functions of a relevant landlord”.
The appellant, Michael Redpath, was born in 1951. He used to be a secure tenant of the respondent local authority, Swindon Borough Council (the “Council”). He had lived in a cul-de-sac known as Warneage Green in the village of Warnborough, near Swindon, in Wiltshire, for 48 years. Initially he had lived with his father at 11a Warneage Green. Following his father's death he had succeeded to the secure tenancy of those premises on 30 December 1985. In March 1987 he had transferred to a smaller property at 2 Warneage Green, where he remained until his eviction in July 2006.
That eviction occurred in the following circumstances, essentially because of his abuse of alcohol and his inability to refrain from making a nuisance of himself when in drink. On 17 February 2003 Mr Redpath had been convicted at Swindon magistrates' court for failing to provide a specimen for analysis and other driving offences. He was sentenced to six months in prison. A neighbour, Mr Johnson, who lived with his partner Ms Matthews in Shalagrin, a house on Warneage Green, had reported Mr Redpath to the police for driving when under the influence of alcohol. That led to his arrest and imprisonment, and it also started a feud which Mr Redpath directed against Mr Johnson and Ms Matthews. They were the owners of their home, not tenants of the Council.
Following Mr Redpath's release from prison in May 2003, he pursued a campaign of harassment against the unlucky couple, including threats towards them and damage to their property. This in turn, as well as arrears of rent, led to a suspended possession order being granted against him on 18 July 2005.
Mr Redpath's bad behaviour did not stop. On 24 October 2005 he was convicted at Swindon magistrates' court of assaulting a Mr Coakes, the landlord of a pub in Warnborough, whom Mr Redpath blamed for requiring a former partner of his to pay for a broken car mirror. On 30 May 2006 he was convicted for acts of criminal damage at Shalagrin. This led to DJ Watkins lifting the suspension of the possession order on 27 June 2006. At the same time DJ Watkins of Swindon county court granted the Council its first ASBI which prohibited Mr Redpath from engaging in anti-social behaviour or entering Warneage Green. It was granted for a year, until 27 June 2007.
Thus Mr Redpath came to be evicted in July 200However, he did not comply with the first ASBI. On 30 September 2006 he was seen outside Shalagrin. On 9 October 2006 the first ASBI was varied to prohibit Mr Redpath from entering Warneage Green or any public house in the village of Warnborough. He was also forbidden from engaging in, or threatening to engage in, conduct which was capable of causing nuisance or annoyance to any person residing in Warneage Green and/or to any person engaged in lawful activity in, or in the neighbourhood of, Warneage Green. A power of arrest was attached.
Mr Redpath was not daunted. On 3 March 2007 he committed four acts of criminal damage: (i) he threw a stone through the window of a house at 5 Warneage Green where a Mrs Hayes lived as an owner-occupier (she had given evidence against him in relation to the first ASBI); (ii) he damaged Mr Johnson's car; (iii) he damaged a car belonging to Mr Coake; and (iv) he damaged a car belonging to a Ms Jones, another resident of Warnborough. On 21 March 2007 he pleaded guilty to these four offences and was sentenced to eight weeks imprisonment. On 2 April 2007 he was committed to prison for eight months by a judge at Swindon county court for breaches of the first ASBI consisting in those four acts of criminal damage of 3 March. On the same date a new injunction, the second ASBI, was granted against him, on similar terms to the first, to remain in force until 1 April 2008.
Mr Redpath then kept himself clear from further offending or anti-social behaviour until almost the expiry of that second ASBI. However, on 28 March 2008 and on subsequent occasions he returned to Warneage Green and these visits gave rise to six further incidents, and ultimately to a third ASBI. The six incidents were as follows. (1) On 28 March he ripped a metal post-box from the wall of Shalagrin and used it to break the dining room window of the house. Ms Matthews gave evidence of her and Mr Johnson's distress and annoyance. A local resident of Warneage Green, X, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal, a tenant of the Council, saw Mr Redpath at Shalagrin, shouting and swearing and drunk. She was fearful as to what he might do in the street. (2) On the same day Mr Redpath threw a brick through the windscreen of Mr Coakes' car where it was parked outside his pub. This was the same car which had been damaged by Mr Redpath in the previous year. (3) On 29 April 2008 Mr Redpath telephoned the police (saying he was in Swindon) and threatened to kill Mr Johnson. He was very drunk and said he wanted to be arrested. When Ms Matthews and Mr Johnson learned of this threat, they regarded it as another attack on them. (4) On 7 May 2008 Mr Redpath was found asleep and drunk in a bus shelter in Warnborough. He was arrested for breach of bail conditions (imposed following his arrest on 17 April arising out of the events of 28 March). He said: “This is my village and no-one tells me to stay out of it.” (5) On 29 May 2008 Mr Redpath was seen in the vicinity of a block of garages which lay behind homes on the west side of Warneage Green. The garages belonged to the Council and were let to Council tenants who lived in Council flats in Warneage Green. These garages were also near to Shalagrin. Ms Matthews and Mr Johnson gave evidence that they felt intimidated by what they considered to be Mr Redpath's continued campaign of stalking. (6) On 13 June 2008 Mr Redpath was in Warneage Green again. Robert Hayes (whose mother had given evidence against Mr Redpath in connection with the first ASBI, see above) observed him standing outside her house. He was drunk and abusive. He then went to stand outside Shalagrin, staring at it. The witness feared further damage being caused to Shalagrin.
As a result of these further incidents, on 30 May 2008 the Council sought to commit Mr Redpath for breach of the second ASBI (incidents (2) and (3)) and also relied on the succeeding incidents to seek a third ASBI, since the second had expired on 1 April. The matter initially came before HH Judge Wade on 23 June 2008. He fined Mr Redpath £100 for breaching the second injunction and granted a further, interim, injunction until 23 July 2008, the terms of which prohibited Mr Redpath from engaging in, or threatening to engage in, conduct capable of causing nuisance or annoyance to any person residing in Warneage Green. He was also prohibited from entering Warneage Green.
On 21 July 2008 Judge Wade granted the third ASBI in its final form. It is this ASBI which is the subject-matter of this appeal. Its material terms are as follows:
“1. The Defendant is forbidden from engaging in, or threatening to engage in, conduct which is capable of causing nuisance or annoyance to any person residing in Warneage Green, Wanborough, Nr. Swindon or to any person engaged in lawful activity in, or in the neighbourhood of, Warneage Green, Wanborough, Nr. Swindon; and
2. The Defendant is prohibited from entering, or being in, Warneage Green, Wanborough, Wiltshire.
3. A Power of Arrest do be attached to both provisions of this Injunction.”
This third ASBI was to remain in force for three years, until 20 July 2011.
Evidence was given in the proceedings before Judge Wade by Ms Matthews and Mr Johnson (of Shalagrin), by Robert Hayes (the son of Mrs Hayes, another former neighbour in Warneage Green), and also by two anonymous residents of Warneage Green, X and Y. Their evidence was presented in hearsay form by the Council's anti-social behaviour investigator, Mr Jeremy Law. X was a tenant of the Council. X gave evidence not only of incident (1) but also of the background of Mr Redpath's abusive behaviour. X said that X's family as a whole were fearful of Mr Redpath's violent and threatening behaviour and X felt unable to be identified because of fear that X and X's family would then become further targets of his behaviour. Y was another tenant of the Council and gave similar evidence. Y said that whenever Mr Redpath was...
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