Dolphin Square tenant’s harassment prosecution of Westbrook begins

A private prosecution of US-based fund manager Westbrook alleging criminal harassment of a tenant in its Dolphin Square housing block in Pimlico, London SW1, has begun at Westminster Magistrates’ Court. Westbrook, which has pleaded not guilty, is alleged to have “pursued a course of conduct that amounted to the harassment” of tenant Elka Raine between June and September 2009. This morning, Raine’s barrister, Piers Reed, told the court that Westbrook sought to evict Raine from her flat after she complained about the standards of service following Westbrook’s purchase of the block’s leasehold from Westminster City Council in 2005. Reed alleged that once Westbrook took over, the standard of service and cleanliness and the provision of facilities worsened significantly, damage was caused by building works, central heating and water supplies were disrupted for “elongated periods” and “excrement and infestations were left uncleared and untreated”. Reed said that because Raine complained “she became a ‘pest’ to Westbrook, so we suggest they decided unreasonably to get rid of her”. The first alleged act of harassment, in June 2009, was a notice seeking possession of Raine’s flat that had been posted on her door “in full public view”. This made “unsubstantiated claims [against her] of aggression, danger or damage to persons on the estate, none of which was true”. Reed said that  the notice was “spiteful” and that the threat of eviction caused her “alarm and distress”. A further allegedly “vindictive act” concerned a letter sent by Westbrook’s solicitor to Raine’s solicitor last July stating that she had been reported to the police for filming children around the estate. Reed said that the complaint had been made to the police by a Dolphin Square security guard acting “not on his own initiative” or “on a frolic of his own” but directed to do so on the advice of Westbrook’s in-house lawyer. Reed said that the “wholly untrue” allegations made to the police were “part of a campaign” against Raine, who had in fact been filming breaches of covenants by building contractors when no children were in the vicinity. He said that the allegations were “malicious and deeply hurtful, particularly since Elka Raine does a lot of charity work at Great Ormond Street and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital” and such allegations could do “immense damage” to that work. Westbrook denies the claims and argues that Raine has a history of “persistent and often unfounded and vexatious complaints” about Westbrook and its managing agent Mantilla Ltd. The case continues.