Home   Maidstone   News   Article

Landlord Fergus Wilson must pay traffic warden £1,000 after racial abuse

A multi-millionaire landlord who racially abused a traffic warden has been ordered to stay at home between 7pm and 7am for three months.

Fergus Wilson, from Boughton Monchelsea near Maidstone, will be obliged to wear an ankle tag to ensure his compliance with the curfew as part of a 12-month community order imposed by Medway Magistrates' Court yesterday.

Fergus Wilson will be obliged to wear an ankle tag
Fergus Wilson will be obliged to wear an ankle tag

Additionally, Wilson must pay his victim £1,000 compensation and he was also ordered to attend 30 sessions of community work within the next 12 months, pay £620 costs and £85 victim surcharge.

The sentence arose from an incident in April 2018, when he was parked outside two properties owned by his wife Judith Wilson in Queen's Road, Maidstone.

They were in the process of being turned into housing for domestic abuse victims, but that project was never completed.

When Slovakian-born traffic warden Zuzana Austin, 38, gave him a parking ticket, Wilson, 71, raged at her.

He asked her: "Do you even speak English? Take your stupid ******* ***** back to your own place where you came from."

The exchange was caught on the warden's body-worn CCTV.

Wilson denied he was being racist, stating that Mrs Austin, who is white, was the same race as him, but was told the term racial abuse could refer to nationality.

Mrs Austin had previously told the court his outburst had left her "traumatised."

Mr Wilson described her as a "snowflake."

The chairman of the bench, David Graeme, imposed a two-year restraining order on Wilson forbidding any contact with Mrs Austin.

Former maths teacher Wilson and his wife established a property letting empire across Maidstone and Ashford, after purchasing their first buy-to-let property in 1986.

At one time they were said to have owned a 1,000 homes and were allegedly worth £100 million, though it recent years they have been dis-investing and are now down to around 300.

Wilson prompted a previous outcry in 2017 after advising his letting agents not to let his properties to "coloured" people "because of the curry smell at the end of the tenancy".

The chairman of the bench, David Graeme, imposed a two-year restraining order on Wilson forbidding any contact with Mrs Austin.

Wilson had already paid the £70 parking ticket.

Wilson said he would appeal the conviction.

He said: "The saddest thing about this is that work on the women's refuge came to a halt. Two of the four Romanian workers we were employing have since gone home and Maidstone will not now get this facility."

To get the latest updates on ongoing cases, police appeals and criminals put behind bars, click here.

Close This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.Learn More