Millionaire jailed for building world’s biggest man cave is out of prison… and fighting his neighbours AGAIN
A MILLIONAIRE caged after he illegally built the world’s biggest mancave is out of jail – and he’s already annoying his neighbours.
Loaded accountant Graham Wildin, 70, was banged up for six weeks in August after refusing to tear down his massive extension.
Now freed, neighbours say prison hasn’t worked a jot and he’s back up to his “belligerent” tricks, even stopping people from parking their cars.
One neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “It hasn’t made any difference at all.
“He’s just as belligerent.”
The plush mancave in Cinderford, Gloucestershire, went up eight-years-ago and boasted a bowling alley, squash court, cinema, casino and bar.
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But Wildin didn’t bother to get planning permission.
In April, he was ordered by the courts to destroy the complex.
He allegedly tried in vain to create a fortress via a legal loophole to keep council bulldozers away.
Over the years, planning inspectors and courts have agreed that it was built without permission and given various deadlines for certain things to be done.
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One of those conditions was giving Wildin 18-weeks to cut off the water, electricity and gas and remove all the fixtures, fittings and furniture from inside the building back in June 2021.
But the court heard that when enforcement officer Stephen Colgate visited on Thursday August 11 with two PCSOs, he found lights on, taps running, toilets flushing and the sound of the gas boiler.
The casino and bar had been removed but most of work that needed to be done to comply with the court order had not been carried out.
Mr Collgate took nearly 100 photographs inside the building to compare with a checklist of 32 things Wildin was supposed to have done to comply with the court order.
He’s just as belligerent
Neighbour
Wildin tried to argue that the evidence should not be admitted because the council official had turned up without notice and forced his way into the locked property.
The judge told Mr Wildin he would enact the order and send him to prison for six weeks.
He awarded £10,000 costs to the council and told Mr Wildin to render the building unusable when he comes out of prison or face being brought back before the court.
But fury has bubbled since his release as the accountant – who parks his classic collection on the street – is now blocking the road with a newly acquired Porsche.
And he’s depriving neighbours of parking spaces in the process.
The fuming neighbours also claim the 12-bed house, Paradise, which is owned by his family company, is being rented out to large parties.
‘HANDS ARE TIED’
They say that is bringing extra holiday traffic onto the already congested residential road clogged with his classic car fleet.
A livid neighbour added: “The authorities keep telling us that their hands are tied but things are going on below the surface.
“But in the meantime everything stays the same.”
Following his release locals met with police and town councillors to try and find a solution to the car carnage on Meendhurst Road.
But little has changed.
The millionaire was initially given until the end of April 2020 to remove the 10,000sq/ft complex.
It was then that Mr Wildin told the court that an injunction would ruin him – stating that demolishing the man cave would cost him £720,000.
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Last year, the Court of Appeal rejected his bid to quash a suspended prison sentence given for not removing the structure.
The court also set a deadline of March 10 2022 to demolish it or warned him he would be jailed.