Ellison to take on Camden with law-breaking stunt

FLAMBOYANT Eversheds partner Robin Ellison is to stage a bizarre law-breaking stunt as the latest move in a lengthy campaign to prove ownership of land outside his home in London.

The leading pensions lawyer was allegedly discovered at dawn one day last October painting out double yellow lines on the public highway in front of his house.

For this the council insisted Ellison should be arrested for criminal damage. Instead he received an informal warning from a police sergeant shortly before Christmas. According to a police spokesman, the Crown Prosecution Service had advised there was insufficient evidence to arrest him.

The incident followed a lengthy legal dispute between Ellison and Camden Borough Council over ownership of land beside his Hampstead home which the council wants to use as an access point for six units of 'affordable housing'.

Ellison dropped the civil action a week before it came to trial. But he thinks he has found another way to claim his title to the land.

Ellison told The Lawyer that he will wilfully obstruct the highway by his home this week and then invite the police to issue a summons against him under section 137 of the Highways Act.

He will then use his appearance in the magistrates court to argue that the land is private and not a public highway.

In a previous legal ploy, Ellison issued an ex parte injunction when the council tried to remove bollards he had erected on the land. But Camden was later able to overturn the injunction.

A spokeswoman from the council meanwhile has hit out at Hampstead Constabulary's decision not to arrest Ellison.

She commented: 'They had an affidavit from a witness who is employed by the council as a parking officer so if that is not enough grounds for arrest then what is?'