Landlord and YouTuber in legal spat

Having become a landlord that the papers love to hate, after an email banning coloured people, single parents and battered wives, (and bizarrely, plumbers) hit the headlines last year, Kent-based landlord Fergus Wilson has once again made the national news, this time due to a spat with a vlogger.

YouTube vlogger Danny Hyde took to social media to vent his frustration at Mr Wilson’s policy to ban non-white tenants, namely over claims that Mr Wilson will not let to ‘coloured people’ as they make his properties ‘smell of curry.’ In the explosive YouTube video, Mr Hyde exclaimed that Mr Wilson should consider banning curry if he hates it so much, rather than an entire race of people, as well as a few more rather more personal statements aimed at Mr Wilson.

Following the release of the video, Mr Wilson and his wife Judith chose to sue Mr Hyde for £10,000 over the statements, which they described as ‘grossly offensive’, stating the video to be in breach of the Malicious Communications Act 1988.

Mr Hyde has admitted to being nervous about the court case at Yeovil County Court later this month, but stands by his actions, stating: ‘it’s 2018 and I am fed up with people being discriminated by the colour of their skin. I firmly stand by everything I said in my video’.

In an interview with a national newspaper, Mr Wilson noted that Mr Hyde had ‘made the misfortune of picking on somebody who can bring a private prosecution against him’, and that he ‘will bankrupt him if he can’t pay.’

The case continues.