Travellers granted legal aid to fight eviction 'buy £230,000 five-
bedroom house... with CASH'
By Andrew Levy
Last updated at 6:03 PM on 04th December 2008
As a family of travellers with no place to call home, the McCanns have
always fiercely defended their right to settle on a sprawling illegal
camp.
So much so that they have fought bitterly with a local authority through
the court system to keep their two plots of land.
At present, they are locked in battle with Basildon District Council at
the Court of Appeal in London, funded by legal aid, claiming an order to
move them from Hovefields in Essex would breach their human rights.
But the family matriarch, Cathrine McCann, was facing difficult
questions yesterday after it emerged her name was on the title deeds of
a five-bedroom £230,000 home a stone's thrown from their 'official'
residence.
To qualify for legal aid, applicants must declare that they have no more
than £8,000 in capital assets, although the first £100,000 equity of
someone's house is exempt.
According to Land Registry records, Mrs McCann, who is understood to be
in her 40s, appears to have bought the £230,000 property called
Southview - for cash - six months ago.
Further investigations suggest she and her husband Gerry, 49, who drives
a brand-new £27,000 silver Mercedes C220 Sport, have owned or lived in a
string of houses for the past 22 years.
Furious homeowners near the Hovefield site who have seen crime soar and
their house prices plunge since the travellers arrived five years ago
yesterday demanded action.
David Walsh, 57, who lives next door to the sprawling camp with up to
200 residents and has logged more than 250 anti-social and criminal
incidents, said: 'The council and other authorities must now undertake
an immediate investigation.
'It makes a complete mockery of the planning process and adds insult to
injury that the taxpayer is funding these ludicrous battles.'
The semi-retired driver added: 'I've seen Gerry and Cathrine there a
couple of dozen times in the past few months.
'Gerry was working on it with a team of people on Sunday morning. He was
sitting on a digger making a new driveway.
'Cathrine potters around, in and out of the house. She seems to be there
on a fairly regular basis to see how things are going.'
Another resident, who asked not to be named, said: 'Why weren't simple
checks done before the case to save the state all that legal aid?'
According to records, Cathrine McCann, also known as Cathrine Small, was
first housed by Harrow Council in Middlesex in 1986 in a three-bedroom
semi.
Three years later she was moved to another house in nearby Stanmore. She
and Mr McCann listed the address on their wedding certificate when they
married in 1990.
In 1992, Mrs McCann bought the house, which was worth £82,000, for
£53,000 under the Right To Buy scheme, although she used her maiden name
of Small on the deeds.
She also used the name Small on the electoral roll until 1997, when she
sold the property for £95,000 - a profit of £42,000.
A few months earlier, in December 1996, she bought a two-bedroom period
property built in the 1800s called Paygate Cottage, in Maidstone, Kent,
under her married name.
The couple moved into the cottage with eight children and were granted
retrospective planning permission by Maidstone Council when they filled
the third-of-an-
residents.
The family then tried to turn the former garden into a traveller site
for up to 12 caravans. But this time, the council took enforcement
action and the McCanns lost an appeal.
The cottage was sold to a developer for £249,000 in June 2003.
A year earlier, Mrs McCann was given a three-bedroom terraced house in
Harold Hill by the London Borough of Havering.
She again used her maiden name on the electoral roll, and continued to
have the use of the property until 2005 - when the family were evicted
following complaints of anti-social behaviour - despite the windfall
from the sale a year later.
In the meantime, the family moved to Hovefields late in 2003, claiming
to be homeless.
In a 2005 statement, Mrs McCann said she and her husband could not
afford the £60,000 needed to buy a legal pitch and would be forced back
onto the road if evicted from Hovefields.
She said: 'I have been travelling all my life. If we have to move, there
is nowhere for us to go.'
Yesterday, she insisted she was entitled to legal aid and claimed she
was not the owner of Southview.
'I get legal aid because I haven't a penny. I don't own no house,' she
said.
Planning agent Dr Donald Kenrick, who presents evidence for the family
at legal hearings, said he had no knowledge of them living in houses.
'I take what is given to me in good faith. I don't have the resources to
check out people's pasts,' he added.
But a spokesman for Basildon Council said: 'As far as I'm aware, the
allegations - the claims about owning houses - are all pretty accurate.'
The two-day hearing at the Court of Appeal, which began yesterday,
concerns 15 plots with up to 80 people at Hovefields and 54 plots with
up to 400 people at another illegal Essex camp, Crays Hill, near
Billericay.
Insiders said the legal cost for both sides has run into hundreds of
thousands, including tens of thousands in legal aid.
The Legal Services Commission, which is responsible for legal aid
awards, yesterday said it would investigate the claims if presented with
evidence.
It added the Appeal Court hearing would not be halted as it involved
many travellers.
http://www.dailymai
aid-fight-eviction-
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Thursday, 4 December 2008
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