Vivienne Westwood's millionaire son wins rent court case against mum on benefits
A young mum on Universal Credit says she will be put at "great financial risk" after being ordered to pay nearly £5,000 to the multi-millionaire son of fashion designer Vivienne Westwood.
Rebecca Shortt, a tenant cattle farmer, lost her case against Joseph Corré after being taken to a small claims court over unpaid rent and damage to a farm which he owns in north Cornwall. Both appeared in person and unrepresented at Bodmin County Court yesterday, where it was heard how she owed him £2,324 in unpaid rent and another £2,000 in unpaid farm repair costs.
Ms Shortt, 31, told how she had refused to pay last year's rent because of a water leak on the farm, which meant there was not enough water on the fields she used for her dairy cows. "I didn't pay because the farm was untenable," she said. "It's not a farm if there's no water. You can't keep animals there."
After being ordered to pay £4,324, as well as £551 for Mr Corré's court fees, she said: "I don't have any money. I can't pay it as I'm on Universal Credit. I have absolutely zero prospect of paying it."
Rebecca Shortt, a tenant cattle farmer, was ordered to pay nearly £5,000 (Rebecca Shortt)
Dame Vivienne Westwood and her son Mr Corré at a fundraising gala in 2010 (PA)Following the hearing, the start-up farmer told Cornwall Live: "It's going to put me at a great financial risk. It will put a huge financial stress on me. I don't have anything to sell. He claims to be humanitarian and environmentalist and campaigned for Julian Assange's release. He's active in human rights campaigns yet he decided to take a young mum who's trying to farm for wildlife to court for less than £5,000."
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She added: "I'm just glad my baby is safe and that I'll be able to carry on my work to improve cow welfare and advocate sustainable farming. Fortunately having a clear conscience still doesn't cost anything in Britain at the moment."
Fashion designer Vivienne WestwoodMr Corré, the co-founder of fashion brand Agent Provocateur, had claimed against Ms Shortt for several months of unpaid rent from April to September last year, and for the cost of repairs to gates and fences which he said were not carried out despite an agreement having been signed by both parties.
Ms Shortt, who is originally from Penge in South London, argued "they were rotten in the first place", and repairing them meant improving Mr Corré's property rather than just repairing it. She first signed a farm tenancy agreement with Mr Corré in 2019 with the idea to farm the land sustainably, followed by a second tenancy agreement in 2021 when her private circumstances changed.
She said the discovery of the water leak in April 2020 - on one of the fields kept by Mr Corré for his personal use adjacent to hers - happened when she received a huge water bill that did not reflect her water usage. She said Mr Corré asked her to turn the water off until the water leak could be found and fixed.
Ms Shortt said: "My expectation was that the leak would be fixed and the water would be turned back on by the landlord." The activist and businessman, who acquired the land in Cornwall 15 years ago, refuted claims that the farmer's cows didn't have access to any water.
He said that apart from one or two fields, there were streams running along the others, there was a water source and access to a bore hole, insisting also that the young farmer had access to a water bowser. "There was water everywhere," Mr Corré told the court.
"Since she has moved away I have had another tenant in and nothing has changed and there has been no issue with access to water. The situation was never desperate. She also never told me the farm was untenable." Ms Shortt, who has since relocated to mid-Cornwall, said the farm only had two tiny streams and also denied being given access to a borehole, saying that her expectations as a tenanted farmed were that it was the landlord's responsibility to provide access to water.
She added: "The fields kept being swapped because of some rewilding idea he had. I would not have agreed to pay this amount of rent if I had known there was a water issue. I left because of it and because of his aggressive bullying behaviour and constant harassment. He swore at me because of the noise milking my cows made was disturbing his peace. He was threatening over all sorts of things."
Mr Corré denied making such threats, saying he had been exasperated at times when Ms Shortt's animals escaped, including cows running onto the A39 nearby and a flock of chickens pooing in front of a holiday let he owns.
He added: "She couldn't control her animals. She was inexperienced in farming and was struggling. She tried different forms of farming but she couldn't make it work and to be accused of bullying behaviour and being aggressive is not true. I never threatened her with eviction. I told her it was not working out between us. But she behaved dishonestly."
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Despite claims and counter claims made by both parties, District Judge Inglis said it was not the purpose of a small claim court to pass judgment on any aspects of morality or fairness but to look at the legality of agreements signed by the two parties.
"It's not this court's place to judge on the fairness of it, just on its legality," he told Ms Shortt. "Even if it appears one-sided." District Judge Inglis ruled in favour of Mr Corré, noting the tenancy agreement stipulated clearly that access to water was not a requisite of the tenancy agreement and leaks would have to be paid by the tenant as well as repairs to boundaries and gates.
Mr Corré insisted taking her to court had never been about the money. He said: "It's a point of principle that's all. I don't care about the money. I gave someone a chance to do something and they acted in a dishonourable way. It's about integrity. I'm not bothered about the money. But it's the principle."
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