Married couple with £70,000 legal bill over neighbour hedge row says they would go to prison

A COUPLE  who have spent tens of thousands of pounds in a bitter row with neighbours over a HEDGE say they're prepared to go to jail to prove it belongs to them.

It all started in 2012 when Steve and Sandra Marshall say they woke to discover a huge hole had been cut from the middle of the bushes.

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It sparked a row with the next-door neighbours over who the shrub - which sits between the two properties - actually belongs to and who should be allowed to trim it.

The Marshalls insist it's theirs, and claim they have been forced to spend £71,000 in legal fees trying to prove it.

They have accumulated £56,000 of unpaid fees on top of the £15,000 they have already paid.

But their neighbours' insurers Churchill claim the hedge lies on their side of the boundary.

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Judges have already ruled against the Marshalls - who have been told they cannot cut the bush and must let someone onto their property to trim it instead.

The courts also say Churchill can enter their property in Market Weighton, East Yorks, to asses the claim.

But the couple are refusing to budge, and have flatly denied insurance officials permission onto their land.

They are now risking a fine or even a prison sentence after Mr Marshall, 60, and Sandra, 66, turned surveyors away last week.

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Mr Marshall told the Hull Daily Mail: "The injunction says we have to let the boundary surveyors onto the property, but no way are we going to do that.

"It also says we can't cut the hedge and have to let somebody else onto our property to cut it twice a year.

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"If we are in breach of that and go against it, we will be in contempt of court and could lead to fine or time in jail.

"The stress has been terrible.

"If we lose, it's £50,000 and will be very hard for us after that."

Churchill Insurance has declined to comment.

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