90-year-old accused of 'criminal damage' after tidying land near home

A GRANDAD who got so fed up with overgrown shrubland near his home that he paid to have it cleared has been reported to police by a council.

- Josie Adnitt

Keith Ramsell, 90, spent £1,300 to get the work done after trying to persuade the local authority to act.

But when he contacted them to say he had sorted it out at his own expense he was told he had committed criminal damage and that the police had been informed.

An email from the council told him: "For absolute clarity you must not carry out any such actions again."

Keith from Bushey, Herts, told the council he had approached a police officer to hand himself in, but that the officer had "declined to Taser me, or even put me in handcuffs".

The retired university professor lives in a retirement block whose views of a park and moat have been obscured by an overgrown section of Moatfield Recreation Ground.