A 77 year-old ASBO accountant involved in a bitter parking and access dispute, which he says claimed the life of his son and over £200,000 in legal bills, has received a suspended sentence for breaking the order again.
Roger Jocelyn Gloucester-Trotman, of Devon Road, Sutton and his late son Ian Trotman, who committed suicide aged 44, owned the service road behind a suburban parade of shops, where the defendant's accountancy business is based.
Planning permission was successfully won - despite local objections - to build two three-storey townhouses at each end of the road and Gloucester-Trotman tried to stop neighbouring business owners using and parking there despite them having legal access rights.
Since February 2005 Gloucester-Trotman has continuously been convicted of breaching of ASBOs and restraining orders - around his home and business premises in Westmead Road, Carshalton.
He was convicted by a Croydon Crown Court jury of two counts of breaching an Anti-Social Behaviour Order.
His sentencing was heard at Guildford Crown Court, where he received six months imprisonment, suspended for twenty-one months.
He was also ordered to pay £1400 costs.
The court heard he has clocked-up 27 convictions for similar offences.
Cursed Alley |
His lawyer said: "Mr. Gloucester-Trotman's health seems to be deteriorating markedly.
"He can seem feisty at times, but he's not a man in good health.
"He seems to have become more frail."
The ASBO was made as a result of him continuing to complain to police about issues regarding his son's death, vehicle access and parking to the rear of his office and outside his home.
The dispute has also cost Gloucester-Trotman his professional reputation after he was struck-off by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in 2011, after they finally lost patience with his constant court appearances and ASBO breaches.
On May 28, 2010 his property-developer son was found dead inside a drain located in the disputed access road with an angle-grinder, petrol can and towels and a subsequent inquest found he killed himself by carbon monoxide poisoning.
"He was driven to it by the police," said Gloucester-Trotman, after previously receiving a suspended prison sentence for another ASBO breach.
The development proved incredibly unpopular amongst local residents, who claimed their lives had been made a misery by the father and son's behaviour, their instillation of CCTV and declaring their own parking-free zone.
One neighbour reported Ian Trotman to police for criminal damage after her boiler flue, which was adjacent to the second development site, was vandalised and another 73 year-old resident claimed the son deliberately shovelled lumps of rubble against his legs, sending him crashing to the ground.
That resulted in a criminal trial, but even though Mr. Trotman was cleared of causing actual bodily harm his father says the stress of the prosecution, plus a civil dispute between his son and his ex - Sue Gloucester-Trotman - caused unbearable stress.
The accountant's battle with his business neighbours concerning parking and access in the road ended up at Guildford County Court, which ruled against Gloucester-Trotman, costing him £200,000 in legal bills.
During the dispute he dug up the access road on Boxing Day, preventing any vehicles gaining access and parking.
Those incidents continued to occur from what Gloucester-Trotman saw as a lack of road traffic enforcement, forcing him to be distracted from his accountancy practice to ensure regulations at his home address and office were maintained.
The ASBO was made to prohibit Gloucester-Trotman abusing his neighbours, calling 999 except in an emergency and calling police to complain about car parking and the death of his son.
The order was made to protect three neighbours from harassment, but he has continued to abuse them in the street and regularly turn up at Sutton Police Station to make multiple complaints, at one point having six live cases before the Independent Police Complaints Commission.