Garden row banker who tried to get his neighbour sent to mental hospital 'pretended mother was alive in court case'

 
Dispute: Peter Bayliss and wife Kim harassed Sandra Saxton
Paul Cheston9 February 2015
WEST END FINAL

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A former banker who tried to get a 70-year-old woman committed to a mental hospital after a garden dispute has been accused of pretending his dead mother was still alive so he could keep up legal proceedings in her name.

Peter Bayliss and his wife Kim were condemned by a judge last year for creating a “whirlwind of lies” and ordered to pay damages after they tried to have Sandra Saxton institutionalised over a row about a 12-inch strip of back garden between two houses.

Church warden Mrs Saxton was the neighbour of Mr Bayliss’s late mother, Betty, in Westerham, Kent.

Judge Nigel Gerald ordered the Bayliss couple to pay an estimated £330,000 legal costs and damages, including £36,750 to compensate Mrs Saxton for harassment and nuisance.

Now Mr Bayliss is accused of lying to the court about his mother’s death in August 2011 so he could maintain the legal proceedings in her name. In the High Court, Mrs Saxton’s barrister Philip Noble said Mr Bayliss had tried to use his late mother as a shield should the case go against him.

Harassed: the couple tried to have Sandra Saxton institutionalised

He told Mr Justice Blair: “Mr Bayliss’s mother was joined to proceedings as a party when she was in hospital in July 2011. In August 2011 she dies, but Mr Bayliss, through the proceedings, pretends that his mother is still alive.”

The barrister said the “sinister and devious” ex-banker had casually talked to lawyers about his mother’s health, long after her death aged 93.

He had spoken of his mother’s emotional state and the “very nice care home” she was in, Mr Noble said.

“The sole purpose was to defeat any injunctions made against him,” the barrister went on.

“He and his wife signed counterclaims and a defence in the name of his dead mother.

“They wrote countless letters offering to settle on her behalf. They came to court and gave evidence about Mrs Bayliss senior.

“There were false statements of truth that she was distressed by the proceedings, false evidence and false pleadings. The whole of the claim was fraudulent and bogus. That was what the judge found.

“The judge found that they had lied from beginning to end. They deceived the court throughout for the sole purpose of defeating any judgment against them.”

Mr Noble added: “Various orders and documents were signed on behalf of all three defendants, including Betty Bayliss, who was long since passed away.”

The barrister also told the judge that, since losing the case, Mr and Mrs Bayliss had used the pretence that Betty Bayliss was still alive to avoid a freezing injunction and sold her property, spiriting away the proceeds.

Mr Justice Blair granted Mrs Saxton permission to seek the couple’s committal to prison for contempt. That hearing will take place at a later date.

The maximum penalty for contempt in civil court proceedings is two years’ imprisonment.

Mr and Mrs Bayliss were neither present, nor represented, during the hearing.

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