A man involved in a land spat maintained he did not know where the border to his property was when he replanted a portion of his neighbour’s woodland reserve.

Simon Storey accepted that he swore an affidavit stating that he had received a survey of the property when he purchased it in December 2012.

However he claimed he had no knowledge of a survey dated that same year until after the legal battle began.

The document also highlighted several encroachments onto the northern portion of the property, but stated they were “minor when considering the size of the overall property”.

“At the time we were not aware of this document,” Mr Storey said. “Had we been aware of the document, we may not have moved forward with the purchase because of the encroachments.”

Mr Storey also maintained that he had only carried out the work in the woodland reserve in an effort to clear up damage caused by a pair of hurricanes in 2014.

Samuel Andrew Banks, who owns 17 Inglewood Lane in Paget, has argued that Simon and Deirdre Storey, the owners of the neighbouring 13 Inglewood Lane, cleared trees from a woodland reserve on his property to build an access road.

Jeffery Elkinson, representing Mr Banks, said the Storeys claimed that trees in the area had been lost by the back-to-back strikes of hurricanes Fay and Gonzalo but that Mr Banks was never notified about the damage and replanted the area to suit his own tastes.

However the Storeys have alleged that Mr Banks, the husband of former premier Dame Pamela Gordon, built a gate partially on their property — and accused him of trespassing and causing a nuisance on his side of the border.

As the case continued yesterday, Mr Storey accepted that he had carried out plantings on property owned by the Banks and built a patio that encroached on the neighbours’ land.

Under cross-examination by Mr Elkinson, he agreed that there were four markers at the corners of his property, but denied a suggestion that he was “wilfully” oblivious in the circumstances.

“I would have had to know the border was straight and I would have needed to look at aerial photographs,” he said. “I would have had to engage a surveyor.”

He said at the time he believed the most recent survey was from 1998, and that he had only learnt of the 2012 survey as a result of the legal proceedings.

Mr Storey said that several trees in the woodlands near his house were damaged in October 2014 by hurricanes Fay and Gonzalo, and at the time his priority was to address the damage.

While Mr Elkinson said no one had provided corroborating evidence that trees had been damaged in the storms, Mr Storey said: “Unfortunately, the person who visited the site is no longer with us.”

Reviewing satellite images of the area from late October 2014 which appeared to show foliage in the area, he said that the images did not accurately capture what happened on the ground.

“There are photographs of that area in my witness bundle which show debris on the ground adjacent to that area,” he said.

Mr Storey said that while some vehicles used for work on the southern side of the property had passed around his house through the cleared area, he denied that the area was excavated.

He told the court that debris and fallen trees were removed and chipped to be used in restoration.

“If I had known where the border was, then clearly I would not have crossed it,” he said.

The trial continues.

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