The owner of an Angus caravan park has been found guilty of racially abusing an Irish resident in a row over a smelly sewage system.
Andrew Young, boss of the Barry Downs Park in Carnoustie, told Desmond Martin he would “throw his f***ing Irish a**e off the site.”
Young later told other residents that the complainer was “a troublemaker,” adding: “He’s Irish.”
His initial comment was made during a telephone call to Mr Martin at Barry Downs, while Young was in Skipton, Yorkshire, in August 2019.
Mr Martin had raised concerns about the odour emanating from the site’s complex bio sewage system.
It was during this call that Young made the racist eviction threat.
He denied the offence, claiming at his trial in Forfar Sheriff Court that it was almost impossible to evict mobile home tenants.
Second slur
Young is the owner of the over-50s gated community on the A930.
He said he met Mr Martin and agreed to order a carbon chimney from China to resolve the issue.
But when the pandemic slowed down its manufacture, residents became impatient.
In May 2020, a petition was handed into reception by Mr Martin’s neighbour calling for action.
Young arrived at her property angry that she had been door-to-door collecting signatures when there had already been two coronavirus deaths onsite.
He told the woman that Mr Martin was “using her like a puppet” and called him “a troublemaker” – but he denied adding “he’s Irish”.
Young brought his son, grounds manager Andrew Jr, and asked him to film the conversation as evidence.
But when police asked for his phone, the 27-year-old refused and told officers he’d forgotten its PIN.
Convicted
After a trial at Forfar Sheriff Court, Sheriff Alison Michie found 53-year-old Young guilty of making the grossly offensive or menacing remark on a telephone call in August 2019.
She also convicted him of acting in a racially aggravated manner in May 2020.
Young was fined £700.
The trial began in September 2022 and days of evidence was led.
Sheriff Michie repelled a no case to answer motion when Young’s solicitor Michael Foster said any use of the word Irish would only have been as a descriptor.
However, Young denied using the word at all on either occasion.
He explained all residents at the park near Carnoustie were aged 55 and over and he employed Polish, Lithuanian and Ukrainian staff.
Giving evidence, he said his grandmother was from County Down and his grandfather was from Ballymoney.
A Northern Irish resident who lived at his site also gave a character reference as evidence, though she had no part in either incident.
Young said he got on fine with Mr Martin, despite also alleging the resident had earlier phoned Openreach claiming to be a site manager to get fibre optic broadband installed.
He claimed Mr Martin had got the manager of another site sacked between the dates of the remarks.
In her closing speech, fiscal depute Jill Drummond said: “There was a comment that was made that was grossly offensive.
“There were issues, there were tensions before then.
“It was a racial slur against Mr Martin’s nationality.
In reference to the second remark, she added: “Mr Martin was the only one that was from Ireland that day.”
Barry Downs park hit headlines in 2012 when Adrian and Gillian Bayford won a Euromillions jackpot of £148.6m while staying at the site.
For the latest court cases across Tayside and Fife, join our Courts Facebook page
