A star of Storage Hunters has been fined after being found guilty of driving his BMW at a woman in her 70s in a dispute over land.
Daniel Hill, 43, known as ‘Dapper Dan’ on the reality TV series, was caught on CCTV driving his car towards the woman in the small village of Haslingfield, Cambridgeshire on March 9 last year.
He appeared to drive at speed and then braked heavily, coming to an abrupt stop just in front of her on Badcock Road.
The TV star, from Marham, King’s Lynn, was sentenced at Cambridge Magistrates’ Court on May 6. He was given nine points on his licence after being found guilty of driving without due care and attention. He must also pay a £660 fine.
PC Lazaro, from the South Cambs Neighbourhood Team, who investigated, said: ‘There has been an ongoing dispute over land in Haslingfield.
‘Hill deliberately used his car in a threatening manner. His driving fell far below that of a reasonable and competent driver. It’s fortunate that the victim was not crashed into and injured as a result.’
It comes after Hill acquired a plot of land in Badcock Road, which had been gardened by a woman in her 70s and her husband for 40 years, in November 2023.
He bought it – along with a second piece of land – for £18,000 at an auction of assets of the original estate developer who had gone into liquidation.
Hill, who appeared in all five UK series of Storage Hunters from 2014 to 2016 as a ‘main buyer,’ said at the time that he had ‘done the deal of the century’.
He also claimed the local residents should have ‘stuck their hand in their pocket’ if they wanted the land.
Hill later claimed the villagers had been trying to drive him away and accused them of ‘harassing’ him and ‘causing criminal damage’ to his property.
But the residents said he had been ‘terrorising’ them with his heavy handed behaviour.
Hill was arrested and bailed by Cambridgeshire Police in December 2023, accused of harassment, criminal damage and common assault, but was released at the beginning of March last year without charge.
He then removed a silver birch, which had a Tree Preservation Order, and submitted plans for a house on his land.
Neighbours inundated Cambridge Shared Planning with letters of objection, complaining it would be ‘overdevelopment of the area,’ as well as lead to ‘loss of light’.
They also argued it would pose a safety risk to pedestrians and vehicles as it is on a bend.
In March last year, Hill was denied planning permission because officers said the site was of an ‘insufficient size’ and in an ‘inappropriate location.’
They added: ‘The introduction of any dwelling on the site would result in an undesirable form of cramped and contrived development in a prominent location that would be out of keeping with the character and appearance of the area and would give rise to harm to the amenities of neighbouring properties.’
Over the last year Hill has been spotted back at the site, dumping dozens of tyres around his land to prevent people accessing it and burning hedge cuttings.
In December 2023 Mr Hill said: ‘I saw this cheap bit of land at auction. That’s how I make my money, I buy stuff cheap and try to make a profit on it.
‘Originally I thought it was one of those things where it would go crazy money, it’s a beautiful village here. I was watching the auction and it landed around the £5,000 to £6,000 mark and I thought, I’ve got to have some of this.
‘I started bidding and got it for £12,000, obviously there are fees on top, happy days, I actually thought I’d done the deal of the century. I was really happy with it.
‘I come down here. I did all my research before. I thought there’s planning policy, support planning in the area, there’s no TPO’s, turned up here and started cutting the trees down, then wham all the villagers came out, almost like with their pitchforks and their angry faces, ‘no, no, no, you can’t have this land.’
‘I said, ‘sorry I’ve bought it’, I couldn’t really understand what the problem was and ever since then they have been sour pusses. They didn’t buy it. I’m not going to buy any tears, this is not a poor area.
‘You’ve got accountants, bankers, all kids of very wealthy people here. If they wanted the land they should have bought it.’