Over-efficient house clearance ends in fine

Perhaps the missing number on the front of his new home was a warning to John McMahon that his house move might not be going as well as he had hoped.

His fears were confirmed when he discovered the mirror had disappeared from the bathroom, as had the heated towel rail. And the 12 stepping stones taken from the garden.

Mr McMahon's new home had been stripped of anything that could be tied down, screwed in or nailed. The 61-year-old marine consultant, and his wife, Sylvia, who paid an additional £10,000 to the asking price of £285,000 for the fittings to be included at the detached five-bedroom home in Colchester, Essex, arrived to find that even hooks keeping the curtains tidy had been twisted out of the wall.

The saga inevitably led to Colchester County Court where Judge Simon Mitchell, who described the dispute as "absurdly petty", found on behalf of the McMahons and ordered the seller, Raymond Bennis, to pay compensation of more than £1,000.