Man forced to remove £10k security fence, erected after ten burglaries

Graham Jaggar, a 51-year-old electrician from Dewsbury in West Yorkshire, had a security fence erected around his home after he had been burgled ten times in two months. The fence cost him an eye-watering £10,000, but he decided it was a price worth paying for his security. Unfortunately, the council disagreed, and is now insisting that he alter it or take it down.

The Daily Mail reported that the fence had been up for a year when a neighbour contacted the council and complained that it caused a small blind spot for passing motorists. Now he says he has to spend thousands more on adjusting the fence, or taking it down.

Jaggar told the paper that the fence had been a last resort after his insurer refused to pay out for so many burglaries. He also installed CCTV and an electric gate. Yahoo reported that since putting the fence up, he has not been targeted by thieves, but he is concerned that if he takes it down again he will be at risk.

AOL has contacted the council for comment.
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Fence fallout

It's unlikely to come as any consolation at all, but Jaggar is far from the first person to come-a-cropper over his fence. It seems improbable but fences have been responsible for all sorts of disputes.

Last month a 53-year-old ex-councillor was caught on camera tearing down an iron fence erected by his neighbours, and smashing what remained with a hammer. He was having a drive laid, and removed the fence to make way for it. It was the culmination of a seven-year argument between him and the couple next door over where the boundary between the two properties lay.

In September last year we reported on the woman in from Brownhills in the West Midlands who could no longer use her car or her front door, after her neighbours erected a 6 foot fence at the bottom of her front garden - trapping the car on the front lawn.

A year earlier a neighbourly row over a fence in Hull got so out of hand that the matter went to court. Two 70-year-olds had first fallen out in 2008, after one planted a tree close to the other's fence. The matter escalated until after two fist fights one was granted a restraining order. He continued to harass his neighbours with loud music, noise and shining lights into their home, so they returned to court to amend the order. The judge warned that if the retiree continued, he would face jail.

In 2009 in Sale in Greater Manchester, two neighbours fell out after both families extended their homes and one erected a new fence. While they were away, their neighbours took the fence down, and the case went to court. One family spent so much on legal bills that they were forced to sell up anyway.

But perhaps the most extreme example was in August last year in New York, when an 82-year-old retired art collector was arrested over a fence-related row. Her neighbour built a fence on what she considered to be her yard, so she spray-painted her address on the fence. In court the judge agreed that if the octogenarian could stay out of trouble for six months, the case would be dropped.

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