A father must pay £20,000 to his neighbours after they sued him following a row over a confiscated football, a court heard. 

Chaim Adler found his eight-year-old son was left in tears when his neighbours in Golders Green, north London, did not give back a ball he had kicked over the fence.

Mr Adler then entered their garden “snarling” at and mocking neighbour Warren Bergson, before returning the next day and trying to push his way into their flat while demanding the ball back “aggressively”.

Mr Bergson and his wife Dr Edel McAndrew-Bergson then sued, claiming trespass and harassment, with a judge now awarding £19,800 damages.

Judge Stephen Hellman said Mr Adler, 35, a fire alarm company boss, had been provoked by the Bergsons’ actions in not giving back the ball but that he had gone too far.

“Chaim Adler’s behaviour was aggressive, humiliating and intimidating,” he said at Mayor’s and City County Court. 

“This behaviour goes beyond that which merely causes upset.”

‘Dispute that got out of hand’

In a previous ruling, Judge Hellman said the row had been an “unhappy case about a neighbours’ dispute that got out of hand” after the Bergsons moved in next to Mr Adler’s parents in 2017.

Mr Adler’s parents, Zavy, 73, and Esther Adler, 69, had lived in their home in Highfield Avenue for 40 years, bringing up their children there.