OAP Gardener Hit With Five-Year 'Crimbo' For 'War Of Roses' With Neighbour

Oram Outside Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court

An award-winning gardener has been banned from contacting his downstairs neighbour for the next five years after he smashed her iPad when she filmed him in their shared grounds.

Pensioner Michael Oram, 74, was already subject to a Criminal Behaviour Order - aka ‘Crimbo’ - which curtailed his gardening at the housing association property when the confrontation occurred.

He snatched 56 year-old NHS administrator Jasmine McMurdo’s iPad and stamped on it during yet another ugly disturbance at the property in The Barons, St. Margaret’s, Twickenham.

Oram, a former Chelsea employment agency boss, pleaded guilty to assaulting Jasmine and causing criminal damage to the iPad on March 30, last year.

Three weeks later he was arrested again for breaching the Crimbo on April 19 for removing Jasmine’s garden shears as he attempted to save a flowering bush in the back garden.

Oram also found himself charged with breaching the order on May 15 for tipping over a black bin, plus two more Crimbo breaches relating to gardening on June 29 and July 6, last year.

Neighbour: Jasmine McMurdo

At Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court last Friday Oram was sentenced to eight months imprisonment, suspended for eighteen months.

He was also ordered to pay £350 compensation for smashing the iPad; £160 in court fines and fees and must attend 15 rehabilitation session.

Oram says Jasmine was recording him on her iPad, which provoked his reaction and feels he has been the victim of intimidation and anti-social behaviour at the property.

He has been arrested on multiple occasions and this Crown Court hearing wraps up all outstanding cases against him. 

Oram insists the garden shears incident occurred as he tried to prevent “environmental vandalism” to the bush, which partly blocks the path to Jasmine’s back door.

“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.

Oram: Back Garden Battle

The twice-married former Kew Gardens gatekeeper saw his devoted gardening win Richmond-upon-Thames’s ‘Borough in Bloom’ silver prize and during a previous garden ban he continued tending to his plants by leaning over the wall from the street.

Under the latest Crimbo his gardening is restricted to specific weekday hours of 10am-3pm and he cannot interfere with anything his neighbours do on the property.

He now has multiple convictions for breaching the Crimbo and has previously been found guilty of harassment three times after leading a law-abiding life for the seven decades.

McMurdo herself has also previously been issued with a police harassment warning. 

Grandfather Oram says he is being harassed and when he recently used his garden shed he found a wooden board with the message: “F*** off! Oram. Smile. You are on CCTV! Leave this alone!” 

Landlords Richmond Housing have installed CCTV cameras all over the property as a result of the dispute.