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| Oram Was Protecting Bush |
Pensioner Michael Oram, 74, is subject to a two-year Criminal Behaviour Order, (CBO) which prohibits him talking to his neighbours and interfering with their gardening.
On Tuesday the retired employment agency boss, of The Barons, St. Margaret’s, Twickenham, appeared at Wimbledon Magistrates Court charged with breaching the CBO on April 19.
He indicated a not guilty plea, elected jury trial and was bailed to appear at Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court on June 3.
Oram was arrested when downstairs neighbour Jasmine McMurdo, 56, an NHS employee, called the police when Oram allegedly took the shears she was using to trim a bush on the pathway to her basement flat.
“You cannot cut a flowering bush, you have to wait until the flowers bloom for a few weeks,” said Oram in his garden, looking horrified at the results of his neighbour’s trimming.
Twice-married Kew Gardens volunteer Oram won Richmond-upon-Thames’s ‘Borough in Bloom’ silver prize before his communal garden ban, and vows to go one better this year.
His last arrest comes just weeks after successfully appealing the ‘Crimbo’ garden ban at Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court.
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| Neighbour Jasmine McMurdo |
“I have a six year-old grandson who I can now enjoy the garden with and my ex-partner’s six year-old can also enjoy it,” said Oram.
“I was delighted with Judge Stephen John lifting the restriction because I can now finish the projects to completely restore what had been a typically run-down social housing garden.
“I have transformed an area with bikes and bedsteads into a prize-winning cottage garden and I was not able to do that for a year and that showed.
“Brickwork around the flower beds was falling apart, the lawns were deteriorating, but now I am able to avert that and hopefully win the gold ‘Borough in Bloom’ award.
“For an Englishman to enjoy his garden is his birthright.”
Oram, who describes himself as a “peace-loving Buddhist”, moved into the housing association flat after losing his £3m Richmond Hill home in a divorce after having an affair with he and his wife’s Peruvian au pair.
He says he’s shed “blood, sweat and tears” restoring the front and rear gardens since 2006.
“These gardens are kept by me. I spend all my disposable income on it. I do love the gardens,” added Oram.
Who gave you permission to take my picture. Why was I not asked. Take it down you are in breach of privacy laws. And if you have any queries about authenticity then reply. By the way this article is wholly inaccurate. Firstly Oram had been told by our Housing Association he is not to garden anymore but he ignores their instructions, secondly the gardens are not his they are shared communal gardens, thirdly the shrub was not flowering and I have kept that shrub trimmed back for years otherwise I would end up being hemmed in to my home by its growth. It is appalling that nobody checked with me the accuracy of this event, instead you give credence to this person who has a criminal record now as long as your arm because of his campaign of harassment and intimidation towards me and former and current women tenants. Because I didnt retaliate but instead recorded events in diaries and called on the help of the Police he kept on and on. He is only behaving himself now whilst he waits for his day in court for his eviction hearing. I could write a book on what this man has done to me and others.
ReplyDeleteYes! The criminal record ''as long as your arm'' is a matter of public record! It is a shame that so many tenants have had to leave the area due to his harassment of them at least that is what they have directly told me.
ReplyDeleteThe destruction of the beautiful front hedges which were over 50 years old was a disgrace yet astoundingly the land lords did nothing to stop him and if Richmond in Bloom had seen the gardens before he destroyed them they surely would not have given him any awards. The front gardens now often resemble a junk yard and as another neighbour has commented....'' a pet cemetery ''. Interesting that he has also been banned from Twickenham Studios and the grounds of the flats opposite. Again all facts that can be confirmed.
People don't deserve to have their lives ruined by these neighbours from Hell!