An eminent railway engineer accused of a 'land grab' by a doctor in a row over 4.5ft of paving slabs could be forced to rip up his driveway after losing a legal battle.
Piers Connor and his partner Professor Christine Pasquire built a driveway to connect their £615,000 home to their horse paddock in 2017.
Their driveway included an 'entrance arc' which they wanted to widen by 4.5ft with paving slabs to make it easier for large vehicles to drive down.
But now their driveway is at risk of being torn up after, GP Dr Dawn Moore-Elphick and her husband Richard, said the 4.5ft strip of land in Hunters Rise, Leicestershire is theirs.
Dr Connor, who worked on the Channel Tunnel as an engineer, applied to a judge to take ownership of the land off the Moore-Elphicks.
Representing himself, Dr Connor argued he had acquired 'squatters rights' because since 2017 his vehicles had used the land to pass between his house and the field.
But the Moore-Elphicks responded by hiring a lawyer, Christopher Hudson, who described his client's rivals as 'opportunists' and 'land grabbers'.
The tribunal heard that 'squatters rights' only apply after ten years of continuous usage.
Piers Connor and Christine Pasquire are locked in a row with Dawn and Richard Moore-Elphick
The disputed driveway in Hunters Rise, Leicestershire which Dr Connor could now lose
Judge Ewan Paton, described the case as an 'acrimonious neighbour dispute' which saw the Moore-Elphicks 'threatened to diagonally cut through' the paving slabs.
Presiding over the two-day hearing in the Property Chamber, the judge ruled against the engineer.
He said: 'The applicants have, I find, only been in factual possession of, with an intention to possess, such part of the disputed land as is block paved since 2017.
'I consider that this case is really a dispute about access, masquerading as one about title; and that the applicants have - unfortunately - probably made the wrong application to meet their immediate concerns.
'The applicants clearly wish to have a slightly wider berth and entrance arc for vehicles passing and repassing to and from their field.
'The relatively small - maximum 1.4m (4.5ft) wide - 'wedge' abutting Hunters Rise is the key element of this.
'While there is no evidence either way, expert or otherwise, as to whether the loss of that 'wedge' would make vehicular access more difficult, merely less convenient, or wholly impossible, I can see why the applicants would want to have that area available for such use'.
The judge added that 'the most recent events, including the confrontations and mutual allegations dating from the dispute's inception' were not relevant.
Dawn Moore-Elphick who fought Dr Piers Connor and Prof Christine Pasquire over the drive
The driveway prior to Dr Connor building the driveway in 2017 to improve access to his fields
Dr Connor had always believed he owned access to the land and by paving over land that amounted to an 'act of factual possession' of all the areas it covered.
But the judge disagreed with this and added that the 'stone laying' did not give him ownership of the land.
Using the land by driving upon it also did not grant him ownership.
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