Outspoken landlord Fergus Wilson, who has reportedly become a millionaire through his buy to let investments, has been hit with a permanent injunction by the High Court.

The case was brought by Ashford council in Kent, where Wilson has the bulk of his investment properties.

Wilson can now only contact staff or councillors through a named legal advisor.

The earlier part of the case was heard in February, when – according to the Kent Online news website – the court heard that Wilson repeatedly told councillors to kill themselves. 

The council’s representative presented to the court a file of 454 pieces of correspondence sent by Wilson to council officials in the space of just over four years, between February 2016 and July 2020.

Kent Online reports: “[The representative said] Mr Wilson’s behaviour had made workers feel harassed and intimidated, with some receiving emails from him on a daily basis. Officers, employees and councillors felt bullied and distressed, being unable to respond properly to allegations, some of them being reduced to tears, he added.”

Now Daryl Allen QC has he had “no hesitation” in setting the permanent injunction.

“The defendant’s conduct repeatedly went far beyond merely irritating and annoying, it was deliberately offensive,” he said.

“It included numerous unfounded allegations of professional misconduct and criminal conduct. It included multiple threats of criminal or other legal proceedings which were never pursued.”

Wilson has for some years been a controversial figures, seemingly championing landlords against red tape but often being accused of racist comments, which he has denied.

Wilson and his wife Judith managed their own properties – all in and around Kent – until the year 2000, at which point they instructed agents.

In the late 2010s they said they started selling some of their buy to lets and in late 2018, during a court appearance over a dispute with a disabled tenant, Judith Wilson said she still had a portfolio of some 300 units around Maidstone.

In June of last year the business online publication Insider Media put the couple’s joint wealth at around £140m.

Three years ago Wilson have an interview to our sister publication Letting Agent Today – you can see that here.