Similar thing happened with a guy I used to know back in Essex.
The man had land out Canvey way, and a bunch of gypsy squatters moved in. First year was a gimme, as he wasn't prepared for it - it was an empty field, so there wasn't anything in particular to secure, but once they were in, the police refused to remove them, and by the time they'd finished conducting industrial clearances in his area and departed, the land was uninhabitable, so the council forced him to pay for the cleanup. The next year the gypsies came, there was a substantial fence and gate, so they dismantled the gate hinges, same again, same refusal to remove, same fines and fees to clear up the land.
The year after that, he'd put in a four-foot-high earth berm to keep their vehicles out so they couldn't dump industrial waste on his land. The gypsies responded by stealing a bulldozer and clearing the berm out of the way.
After that - three years in a row of endless expense - he sold the land.
The bit that got me was the council in question didn't even follow up about the theft of the bulldozer. That's how completely cowed they were by the squatters.
Similar thing happened with a guy I used to know back in Essex.
The man had land out Canvey way, and a bunch of gypsy squatters moved in. First year was a gimme, as he wasn't prepared for it - it was an empty field, so there wasn't anything in particular to secure, but once they were in, the police refused to remove them, and by the time they'd finished conducting industrial clearances in his area and departed, the land was uninhabitable, so the council forced him to pay for the cleanup. The next year the gypsies came, there was a substantial fence and gate, so they dismantled the gate hinges, same again, same refusal to remove, same fines and fees to clear up the land.
The year after that, he'd put in a four-foot-high earth berm to keep their vehicles out so they couldn't dump industrial waste on his land. The gypsies responded by stealing a bulldozer and clearing the berm out of the way.
After that - three years in a row of endless expense - he sold the land.
The bit that got me was the council in question didn't even follow up about the theft of the bulldozer. That's how completely cowed they were by the squatters.