The Savoy Theatre has now been open since 2015 and all seems fine. But is it? There have been good and bad times (as life is in general), however, there has been one major problem here, lurking in the background since 2019. It is a full account of one man's attempts to ruin us and the theatre. Read on to find out more.
This article contains CCTV footage and still photos from our private cameras. We would like to make it quite clear that we have two CCTV systems in operation. One system monitors our private areas (yard/garden personal living areas), and the other system monitors the auditorium/foyer/stage etc. Any photos and video shown on here are taken from our personal and private CCTV camera system. The person concerned in this article is fully aware that the CCTV cameras are in operation and the footage retained as evidence, but however continues his misdoings. The contents of this article are in no way libellous or fiction, and the videos and photos are proof of this.
Now this is a very long and complicated (but interesting) story, so we suggest that you make yourself a nice big mug of tea or coffee before you start to read. We would like to say before we start, that we did not want to go down the route of bringing this matter to the public, and have never wanted to make enemies, but we have had enough now and are left with no option but to let people know what is going on and how the future of Tonyrefail’s Savoy Theatre could be at risk by the actions of just one man. This is honestly not meant to be seen as a hate campaign, but to expose the way this man has treated us and the contempt he has for authority and others to get his own way and ruin the Savoy. Thank you for reading.
Daniel and Hayley
Anyway, here goes!
Many of you may have noticed some strange changes to the yard on the right of the theatre over the last couple of years, with barriers, fences and bollards appearing.
We believe it is now time to let everyone know what has and continues to plague us here and put the future of the Savoy at risk.
When we purchased the Savoy in October 2012, it was flagged up that the Savoy also included a separate parcel of land adjacent to it. We did not know at the time that the yard to the right-hand side of the Savoy was indeed two separate parcels of land and registered as such with Land Registry. The yard (as one) just before we bought the Savoy is shown in this photo.
The History of the Area Around The Savoy
The history behind the Savoy goes back a long way, but needs to be explained first. The whole site around it and including the Savoy, Boars Head, No.1 High Street, No.3 High Street and Capel Y Ton were once all owned by Mr (Major) Pritchard. He sold the Boars Head at some time in the 1950s, and in 1965 sold No.3 High Street to Barclays Bank. In 1966, he sold No.1 High Street to The Credit Union, and in 1967 sold the Savoy Cinema to Mr Thomas. In the 1980s, the Savoy was sold again, this time to Mr Dennis Lloyd (Triple Crown Bingo).
In 1965 when No.3 High Street was sold to Barclays, it included the parcel of land between a central wall (see old photo) and the Boars Head.
The wall was owned by the Savoy, and used to run down the centre of the yard (where the metal fence is now). A large garage at the top of the yard (now our large dressing room) was also included under the land title. The first aerial photo from 1978 shows the original wall and division of the properties. The second photo shows the same as the first (labelled for clarity), and the third is an aerial view taken in 2023 with the lines of the 1978 photo overlaid to show that the current layout is correct. This one also shows the footings of the boundary wall that was removed by the owners of the Boars Head in 1997 to build the small garage (the purple rectangle is where the Boars Head garage now sits. It was built in 1997) and we will explain this at the end.
When the Yard Became One
In 1991, Mr Lloyd (who of course now owned the Savoy) approached Barclays Bank with a view to purchasing the parcel of land and large garage that they then owned, this being the aforementioned land between the Boars Head and the central wall. The sale was agreed and it was then registered in 1991 as title WA577048 to Triple Crown Bingo (see title deed plan below.
Mr Lloyd then demolished the central wall that separated the two plots, and the land became (visually) one (all now owned by Mr Lloyd), however it is still under a separate title deed from the Savoy. When we purchased the Savoy in 2012, it included the Savoy and consequently the whole yard to its side (as two titles). However, on the conveyance from 1965 when Mr Pritchard sold No.3 High Street to Barclays Bank, there was recorded a right of way over what was the land once owned by the bank (one side only), this right of way is offered to the Boars Head and No.1 High Street on the charge to that title and the owners and future owners of the Savoy, regardless of who owned the land under title WA577048 on the title related to the Savoy. (see charge below).
As you can see from the above charge against the land in title, this does not include the old bank (No. 3 High Street) as it was already owned by them at the time. However, when the land was sold in 1991 it was conveyed without a recorded continuation of a right over it in favour of No.3 High Street (the bank), and therefore the land was separated from the bank and now in different ownership. This is proved in the conveyance (shown below) from Barclays to Mr Lloyd in 1991, in which the bank did not request the continuation for a right of way over the land (WA577048) in favour of their property.
Although the Bank did not now have a right over the land they had sold, they approached Mr Lloyd soon after the sale and asked if the gate could remain for the time being, as they may require a fire exit. Mr Lloyd verbally agreed, and the gate therefore remained, but was never used.
From the time of sale of the land to Mr Lloyd in 1991, and up until 2019 (we purchased it in 2012), there were no problems. In 2013 we placed a small caravan at the top of the yard to accommodate Dan’s parents when they came to help convert the Savoy. Many people thought that we were living in it, but we were in fact living in what is now the foyer.
In 2016, Barclays Bank sadly closed its branch at No.3 High Street and in December 2017 / January 2018 the building was purchased by a Mr Terry Evans. We met Terry in 2019, and we had a nice conversation about what he would do with the building. He asked about the yard and if he could use it. We explained the situation and that there was no right for him as such, but told him he was welcome to park there whilst he was working on the property, providing that there were no events in the theatre and by prior arrangement, as it is part of our fire escape route. Mr Evans said that he “did not wish to be a nuisance” (!), but never-the-less, we offered to help him as it is the neighbourly thing to do.
Everything was fine until one day Terry spoke to us in the yard, and suddenly (out of the blue) demanded that we clear the land and remove the caravan as it was an eyesore and in his way. We explained to Mr Evans that we were going to dispose of the caravan anyway as Dan’s Mother had recently passed away and his Father could not visit again without her. Terry told us that he wanted it gone so that he could get into his garage (this being the large garage that we now owned and is our dressing room) to park two cars and enable him to put two flats in the bank. We explained to Mr Evans that the garage and the land were sold to us in 2012, we held the title deed for it, and that we needed the land and garage for the theatre’s use, therefore we could not allow him park. Terry then said “If you do not clear my land and let me park up here, I will complain about everything you do, make your lives hell and ruin you”.
As we said, this came out of the blue and we honestly thought he was joking at the time. We soon realised that his threats were real, but did not believe that Terry would embark on a campaign to use and take our land for his own purpose, and also had no idea as to the lengths he would go to do this. Read on!
So, who is terry evans?
The background on Terry Evans is that he was once a Cardiff City footballer who then moved to Swansea City and whose career ended in 2002 when he suffered a double jaw fracture after being deliberately struck with an elbow by David Partridge during a match against Leyton Orient in February 2002. He then moved onto non-league football until 2011, leaving on medical advice. – Information found on Wikipedia.
Terry’s career has not been a smooth ride and diminished out of his own misdoings.
Links here:
He has numerous, recent match suspensions as well. See the documents here:
This information is in the public domain, available online and fact.
Terry is now renting out properties in and around Tonyrefail, coaches for the Tonyrefail BGC, and lives in Gilfach Goch. He has described himself to us as a ‘successful businessman in Ton’.
This is where and how it all really kicked off (please excuse the pun). Late one night in 2019, we observed two people walking up our land to the bank. As these persons were strangers, naturally, we questioned them. The young man told us he and his partner had moved into the flat at the rear of the bank, and that our yard was now the route to their front door. When we politely queried this, the man wasn’t too impressed, however we let it go. A few days later, on a very very wet afternoon (not unusual in Wales!), we witnessed a car drive onto our land, park at the top, and people getting out. We went outside and asked who they were and what they were here for (a natural reaction when someone drives onto your land and parks there).
One of the people turned out to be the man we had seen previously, who told us that Terry had told them that they could park on the yard as they were renting his bedsit in the bank. We tried to explain that they could not leave a car on our land. Naturally the people were upset, confused, and seemed quite angry. It was only when we spoke to the couple the next day that we found out Terry had blocked off the way through to the old rear offices of the bank from the main building, and had converted them into a bedsit to rent out, telling them they could ‘do what they liked on the yard’ (our land). Our next problem then, was that Terry had now turned our land into a public lane for his tenants and associates to get into and out of the bedsit, without asking or consulting with us.
We spoke with Terry, and told him that his tenants occupying the bedsit (No.3B) on the first floor of the bank should use the front door onto the High Street (numbered 3B on that door) as the neighbouring properties do, and not travel over or park on our private yard. However, Terry just argued and we could not get a word in. Terry just kept saying “I have a right over the land, my tenants are entitled to use it and park here. It is my access lane, my land and you cannot stop me. The Land Registry documents are wrong.” This is when Terry started to turn nasty.
If you look at the photos below:
You can see the first showing the bank when it was for sale and notice there are no house / flat numbers above the door. In photo 2, the numbers 3A and 3B have been placed over the door to give the impression that both flats are served by the correct entrance (as they should be). However, as we stated before, the tenants of the bedsit (3B) have only ever used the rear entrance, as Terry has made that part of the building landlocked by his own actions, claiming that it is the only way in or out of the bedsit. He also stated that he needed the gate as it was a fire exit from his shop and offices. We know that there are no fire exits from the shop or the first floor front areas of his property. In fact, to get from the first floor area, Terry climbs through a first floor window, onto a roof, straddles a 3ft gap with a 12ft drop and climbs over a railing (great if escaping a fire and in the dark). How do we know? Well, Dan was felting the dressing room roof. It was then by chance he saw Terry doing his “Spider Man” impression to get in and out of the building. Hayley did not believe it, so Dan put a small camera up for one day and managed to capture it. We cannot include the video here, as it shows part of Terry’s property.
Please note: We would like to say at this point, we have never had a problem with the tenants who occupied/occupy the bedsit in the old bank as people, and understand that they are just renting it for use as their home and we do fully respect that. Our issue has never been with the tenants (past or present). We got on well with the previous tenants (admittedly after a frosty start due to Terry misleading them), and the current tenant is a good friend of ours.
Fast forward through a global pandemic, during which the only thing Terry could do was obtain our solicitor’s details (not from us) and write a long email to her with false allegations about us.....
WE ARE NOW IN 2021
Terry’s complaints about us
In August 2021, Terry made a complaint to the Council that we had built our dressing rooms (six years previously, before Terry even bought the bank) illegally and on the land he claimed he owned, going on the old, outdated, and superseded conveyance plan from 1965. Terry insisted that our dressing rooms be demolished so as he could use another area of our land (behind the Savoy this time) for his tenants to enter and exit via School Street. As a consequence of that we had to prove to the council again our land ownership, pay and re-apply for planning permission to retain them (the Council had apparently ‘lost’ our amended plans from 2015). This also had the effect of holding up the application for the front facade restoration for over two years, and closed us for a further three months after the pandemic at a cost of several thousand pounds. After surviving the pandemic, this brought us very, very close to having to close the theatre for good.
Terry’s next move was to contact the police in November 2021 and complain that we had CCTV cameras looking into the bathroom of his bedsit. We received a visit from a local PCSO to view our cameras, and he proved that this allegation was false.
Unsuccessful on his first two attempts to disrupt our business, less than a week later, the fire brigade received a call from Terry stating that we did not have sufficient fire safety in place (how would he know, he has never been in here). This led to us having to carry out a full fire audit. We were however, proved to be all up to date and the fire safety standard was deemed excellent, with only a couple of very minor issues and re-testing the fire extinguishers to resolve this (as expected when we had been closed for two years).
By this time, we had had enough. We reported Terry to the police for harassment, and engaged a solicitor to look into the matter. Our solicitor then employed a Barrister to look at our problems and look into the land and its layout. It was that Barrister who researched the land history, the times that the properties changed hands, and the meaning of the charges related to them. After our solicitor had all the information that she needed, she determined that Terry did not own any land outside the boundary of the bank and that No.3 High Street did not enjoy a right over the land after its sale in1991. She also explained that Terry and his tenants would be trespassing if they travelled over it. Terry refused to accept this and consequently, our solicitor then issued Terry a Letter Before Action if he did not desist in his actions against us, prevent his tenants passing over the land, and refrain from leaving vehicles on the land. Terry’s response was that he would ignore her, continue to use the land, still insist it was his, and we would have to take him to court to stop him.
Please see letter before action
More trouble from Terry
From then on, Terry started to take physical measures to continue his actions against us by first parking a vehicle at the bottom of our land on one side (the side with the right of way) and refusing to move it. However Jackie had ordered a skip to be delivered on the other side (nearest the theatre) for clearance and maintenance (to enable us to reopen after the pandemic). Once the skip arrived, we thought Terry would move his car to enable us to rightfully exit and enter our property. Even after we explained to Terry that we could not get our car off our land, he refused to move his, even when advised to by the police (they could not force him to though(!)). He then wheel-clamped it and left. We could now not get our car off of our property for a number of weeks, however, thanks to Jackie’s kindness in allowing us to borrow her car, we were still able to go food shopping.
Terry then turned up one day stating that he was now renting the small garage on the land that was owned by the Boars Head and that he needed to get into it.
Our solicitor told us not to let Terry onto our land until we had seen the signed rental agreement that Terry claimed he had (but refused to show us), so we did not allow him access at that time (we placed a barrier in front of his vehicle).
From then on, for over a week, Terry started turning up early in the morning every day, banging on our door and continuously ringing the intercom, demanding that we let him through, still without proof of him renting the Boars Head garage. We ignored him.
We asked him to prove this rental through a letter or agreement numerous times (as did our solicitor), otherwise anyone could claim this. The rental agreement wasn’t sent to our solicitor (and then consequently us) for another couple of months.
Note: The owner of the Boars Head can rent the garage, and the person renting it may enjoy the same right as the Boars Head. This being to travel over the land to access the garage only and not to stop or park on, use the land or interfere with the land owners operations, providing there exists a written rental agreement.
Terry’s car remained at the bottom of the yard for 28 days, until early one morning at the beginning of March 2022, Terry and his son turned up, broke in (by removing our barrier), and parked his vehicle outside the Boars Head garage at the top of our land, once again still not presenting any written proof he had a right to do so.
A few days later (on 15th March 2022) we had a trigger on our CCTV. We observed Terry unbolting and ripping out our boundary fences. We went outside and asked what he thought he was doing. Terry told us that he was opening up the Boars Head land onto ours so he could park more cars there. Dan asked him to stop but he refused, and we must admit that Dan then became angry and ordered him to stop, or he would come down and stop him himself. Well, as we discovered, no threats, shouting or brandishing a scaffold tube whilst standing on the top of our fire escape was going to stop him, so Hayley called the police. Terry told the police that it was his land and that he had a right to be there (they believed him, even after seeing our title deeds and solicitor’s correspondence). Terry apparently waved a piece of paper at them (but wouldn’t let them see it closely, or for them to show it to us) claiming it was a rental agreement for the garage.
Terry told the police that Dan had threatened him and he was now scared to come up and in fear of his life (he was laughing all throughout the incident and Dan never went near him). After the police had spoken with Terry, they told us that he said he “would not move any more fences or cause any more trouble”; however, the next day he hung around photographing and filming our property (this became a trend of his whenever he was on our land, even filming anyone associated with us). The day after that he began smashing our eyebolt out of the wall with a hammer (which he then hid, we still have it). We replaced said eyebolt, and two days later he smashed it out again. Ten days after the original incident, we witnessed Terry removing all our fences again and padlocking them together on the Boars Head land (strange actions for someone who is scared to come up, in fear of his life, and who promised he wouldn’t touch anything or cause any more trouble). After he had gone, Dan immediately cut the padlocks from our fences and replaced them (this time welding them in place). See the CCTV videos below.
A few months after the incident on 15th March 2022, Dan had a call from the police, telling him that he was requested to attend an interview at Porth Police Station. At that interview, Dan was placed on a warning for threatening Terry, and was required to send him a letter of apology (!). Considering that Dan was only trying to protect our property (using reasonable and proportional force), and Terry was the one trespassing, interfering with our property and committing criminal damage, we were extremely surprised that the police acted in this way, especially after saying on 15th March that they would not be taking the matter further. The police said that if Dan did not write this letter of apology, he would be arrested. Thank you South Wales Police for your help!
What happens now?
So anyway, Terry’s tenants, their associates, and now Terry himself were all travelling up and down our land multiple times a day: the tenants to the bedsit, and Terry to and from the Boars Head garage with multiple vehicles. It was like Piccadilly Circus. Terry (with his vehicles) was churning up the surface of the yard in the process (see video).
Bearing all this in mind, and taking the tenants of his bedsit out of the equation for a while, we had (at this point) still not viewed a rental or license agreement for Terry to use the garage despite our solicitor again requesting a copy from him.
Terry also started to place signs in the yard and on gates to keep them clear. He placed a sign on the Credit Union gate saying “keep clear at all times” and then placed a large rubbish bin in front of it. Terry also placed Fire Exit signs to guide people down the rear of the Boars Head land as he felt the yard was dangerous for pedestrians. Take a look at Terry’s fire escape route in this video (narrated by Dan) and make up your own mind.
A short time later (whilst we had popped out one evening to get Jackie a Birthday present), we received a trigger notification from our CCTV system that someone was in the yard. We logged on and could not believe what we saw. Terry had walked up the yard, driven his car down from outside the Boars Head garage and parked it at the bottom of the other side of the yard to block it (nearest the theatre). He then clamped it and placed a steering wheel lock on it so that when we returned, we could not park our car in its usual location on our property. We were forced to park our vehicle on the opposite side of the land that should be kept clear as a right of way, otherwise we would have had to park on the street.
This defeats the object of having our own land. A friend of ours went round to the old bank to speak to Terry and ask him to remove his vehicle, but was told by the tenant in shop that Terry would not remove it, and had in fact gone home. Terry’s car remained there for three days, during which time one of our clients had to carry a lot of scenery and props over the vehicle and park their van on the street. This again defeats the object of having our own land for this purpose.
Two days after Terry had left the car there, he turned up. A friend of ours came over and once again calmly tried to convince him to remove his vehicle, but he refused and began harassing them with his phone, videoing them and shoving the phone in their faces. Another friend just happened to walk past, and doubled back to see what was going on. He slowly walked up the yard with his hands in his pockets. As he approached, Terry suddenly and without reason, put his phone right in this person’s face. Our friend brushed it away (which is a natural reaction), and received a blow to his chest from Terry using a bunch of keys. See the CCTV still photos of Terry punching our friend.
Another friend (who was driving past on his way back from shopping) pulled up and stopped to see if we were okay. He walked up to the top of the yard and stood, talking to the others. Hayley then came out from upstairs and said “Terry, you need to leave now.” Terry just laughed, so Hayley came downstairs and stood in front of Terry. Hayley ordered Terry to stop videoing as he shoved his phone in her face. At that point she moved towards him to grab the phone and he ran off down the yard like a child, laughing and shouting “Come on then, come on! What’re you gonna do? Call the police, go on!” Hayley then chased him off the land, followed by me trying to get Hayley to come back. A friend then followed me to help (it resembled us all doing the conga down Collenna Road (hey! the Collenna Conga, it could catch on!) Anyway, Terry ran off down the road and we returned to the yard. We were chatting when the police turned up. Terry had accused Hayley of “attacking him numerous times” and wanted her arrested for assault. Hayley never touched him, and actually never got anywhere near him as he ran off.
Terry also accused another friend (the person Terry himself hit) of “coming at him from behind and assaulting him”, and another of “jumping and beating him”, stating that when he turned up, he was “met by a bunch of vigilantes” (he was on his own in the yard when he arrived). The full video of the incident is available below. It shows that at no point did anyone touch, assault, or attack Terry, and there were no vigilantes waiting for him. He fabricated every accusation, moving his phone around to make his footage look like he was being attacked. This proves what a coward and liar he is. The police took no action against any of us (although they have since mentioned it numerous times).
During the above incident, Terry was told by Dan that if the car was not removed by midday the next day, it would be towed out, as we had a disabled gentleman in the show cast in a large electric wheelchair that needed to travel up and down the yard to the Stage Door. Terry did not remove his vehicle, so Dan and a friend eventually towed it out onto the road. As we got the car onto the highway, Terry turned up and called the police. They just told him to simply take it away. After this, Dan had to place the metal barrier across the front of the yard (nearest the theatre building) to prevent Terry repeating his actions (as he had threatened to do numerous times).
Terry has since then, continually harassed and intimidated us, our staff, colleagues, friends and families. Bearing in mind that we do own both parcels of land in title, his family and associates have made accusations on social media that we had “stolen the land”, Mr Evans, (in an email to our solicitor) stated “They came to this country in 2013 and since then have tried to take the land as their yard”. We did come here from England, and paid £150,000 for the Savoy and land to provide a community theatre for the town, and not for some greedy, spiteful neighbour to take it from us!
Over the last few years, Terry has regularly told our clients and us to get off of his land. Well here are the deed plans for the bank and this is what Terry owns, nothing else!
On one occasion Terry blocked the land with a vehicle just prior to a performance and then told a young girl that she should not be there and to go away and walk up the other side (she was in tears). Hayley politely asked him to move the car, but he refused, saying that he had parked there because we were parked on his land over the other side (referring to the land immediately adjacent to the Savoy (our other parcel of land)). Terry watched as cast and crew were squeezing past his car, and although one of our volunteers also asked him a few times if he would move, he just argued and kept saying that there was “no access up that side and they should use the other side”. Terry had been pretending to work on his car the whole time, and hung around as any excuse to intimidate people and be a nuisance. This guy has nothing better to do, but try and prevent us using our own land and access to the dressing rooms. He is spiteful, selfish, and places people’s lives at risk. Watch the full video from that day here and see for yourself.
In the photos below, you can see how Terry purposely blocks the lane on different occasions, disabling the fire escape route and preventing persons travelling to the Stage Door.
On another day, Terry placed “NO PARKING” signs on our own cars whilst they were parked on our own land.
Terry has travelled over our land daily, wheel spinning to damage the yard surface, and then complains that we have “made the lane substandard”.
When he removes the front security wire and sign, he throws it to the ground with contempt. (See video below).
On many occasions he threw this wire and sign to the ground where he knew his wheels would travel over it. He then (as expected) ran over it on purpose with his cars. We replaced the much damaged sign but Terry threw it down and ran over it the very next day and many times after. (see photos)
See the two videos here from two consecutive days and there are many more occasions).
This is all because Terry simply doesn’t want the security wire there, and claims that it should not be across the drive as he has to park on the road to remove it before he can drive in. Well millions of others have to do this to open gates or barriers to access their drives (as do we). He claims that stopping on the road is a highway hazard, so why on one occasion did he stop across the footpath (and later block the road) just to have a chat? Everything is a contradiction or a problem he himself has caused but wants to blame us for.
Terry has caused criminal damage, broken and removed fences, and constantly blocked the fire exit route from the theatre. In an attempt to assert that he still owns the land (from that old and superseded 1965 conveyance plan), he started to climb over and through the fences to travel over as much of the land as he could in a feeble and childish attempt to try and prove that the land was his and he could do what he liked.
Below are some very amusing CCTV stills of these incidents. This is just what a petulant child would do when they could not get their own way.
These next videos are full clips from which the above photos are from. As you can see, instead of Terry just walking down from where he came, he took the trouble of climbing the fence, walking over towards the Savoy, under the barrier and onto Collenna Road. Believe me, when people have seen this and described him as ‘tup’, asking “What’s he doing that for?”. Look at the clips and see for yourself.
And just for a laugh, watch the video here.
On another occasion, we were in the yard talking to a delivery driver. Terry walked up the yard and made the Leekes delivery driver move aside so that he could squeeze through the fence. This was unnecessary, considering the whole yard was open. We had to walk away at that point as we started to laugh, and Terry then started telling the delivery driver how we had ‘taken the land’ etc etc. The delivery driver, amused, simply said he wasn’t interested. Take a look at the video below and watch the reaction of the delivery driver. It is very amusing.
We were just at the end of the Covid Pandemic, when one day whilst Dan was cleaning out the car, Terry turned up. He walked up the yard (past his own car), saw Dan and purposely coughed at him. Terry then doubled back to go to his vehicle, whilst Dan ignored him and walked away. Terry stared at Dan for a while, so he went back into the theatre (see it here).
Anyway, in the months following, we continued the best we could (trying to ignore the daily harassment) until one day when things came to a head. On the 21st December 2022, we had called the pantomime cast in early for a rehearsal and a change to the UV Scene. As the cast started to arrive, Terry drove up and parked a car on the fire exit and Stage Door route. Bearing in mind he already had three cars there, he knew full well that there was not room for another without blocking the fire escape route and Stage Door entrance. As a consequence of this, the cast could now not travel in and out of the Stage Door area. (See photos below).
Considering Dan had just spent two weeks building the pantomime set, running rehearsals and setting all the technical for the show (all whilst having the dreaded flu symptoms), he was needless to say on the edge and stressed. Dan went outside and asked Terry to please move his car so that people could get through. Terry just kept saying “It is my land, my access route and not for pedestrian access. Tell them to use the other side!” (Here we go again!)
(We would just like to add a note here! If Terry considers that the lane is not suitable or safe for pedestrian access, why has he made it a route for his tenants to travel to and from the bedsit on foot? Seems to us that it is all fine if it is benefitting him, but for us (who own the land), it is dangerous and not suitable for pedestrians as vehicles travel up and down it. Terry is the only one who regularly takes vehicles up there at speed. On the rare occasions when we use it for loading we always see the vehicles on and off the yard safely.)
Anyway, Terry refused to move the car and turned away laughing and continuing shouting “It is my land, my access lane”. By now Dan had just about had enough, he lost his temper and shouted back at him using very strong language indeed (he just could not control himself, but we all have our limits) However, regardless of how loud Dan shouted and told him to move, Terry refused. We had no idea that he was recording on a small body worn camera. During this whole incident, Hayley was trying to contact the police, without success. We are convinced that Terry did this on purpose to get Dan angry and film him doing so.
A month later, we received a visit from the police. We thought it was in response to Hayley’s eventual contact (in January) with the local PCSO, but instead they were responding to Terry’s complaint against us. PC Vicky Hughes seemed to take great pleasure telling Dan that he was to be charged with a Public Order Offence based on Terry’s video and statement saying that he felt “harassed, terrified and in fear of his life” (seems we have been here before, and once again, every day after this incident, Terry continued to repeat his actions in a desperate attempt to get another reaction from us. We weren’t falling for that trick again!) Terry had also accused Dan of “coming at him with a pole”. That ‘pole’ must have been a small lightweight nylon broom that we use to paint the stage, and considering Terry was either on the Boars Head land or in the Boars Head garage, whereas Dan was over the other side of the yard near the theatre and behind a fence, he was hardly “coming at him”. So, once again for trying to protect our business and care for the people involved, Dan was a victim of Terry’s fabricated version of events, where Terry exaggerated everything, twisted the story, and played the innocent victim. See the photos below of Terry’s cars blocking the whole route.
The following video is of the whole event (without sound for obvious reasons). It shows that Dan did not approach Terry with a pole or physically threaten him. In fact, Dan did not even travel onto the other part of the yard - he was on the other side of the fence (near the theatre) and was on his own private land, so why a Public Order Offence for simply shouting?
A note from Dan
Although I have muted the sound from the video of this incident, Terry may show his own video to some of you (or indeed post it somewhere). If he does, I apologise for the very strong language that I used. I am a little embarrassed by it but stand by my intentions for doing it. I had a responsibility to ensure that the fire route was kept clear and was angry and frustrated that Terry thought it was his prerogative to block it and tell me to use my own land (it is all mine!). I used words and raised my voice as reasonable and proportionate force to keep the theatre and personnel safe.
We must admit, us, and everyone associated with the theatre who had witnessed Terry’s actions had all now begun to wonder just who’s side the police were on, as they had not acted in our favour any time we had reported an incident (and there were many, many reports). The police were not one bit interested in viewing our CCTV to show the true events (even though they would happily view Terry’s recordings). All they would keep saying is “It is a civil matter that you should take to court”.
It is hard to understand how one deluded person can destroy property, trespass, photograph and film people without their consent (more about this below) which is illegal on private land, block property with cars and put people’s lives in danger whilst no action is taken against them, and on the other hand, Dan has a shout and swear (whilst on his own land) at this person to stop him causing trouble he receives a Public Order Offence. For trying to keep the fire route clear and do his job. Tamping? This is putting it politely.
In between all these events, Terry has continually photographed our property and cars. Terry has also videoed us and our staff just going about our normal duties (even Jackie taking out the rubbish).
What is of more concern is that he has been videoing cast and children using the yard and Stage Door. We voiced our concerns to the police (as it is illegal to film on private property, the police eventually agreed this was correct), and parents of children also complained to the police, but as usual, they were not interested. They told us that “Terry was videoing for his own protection and unless you can prove what he is doing with the footage, there’s nothing we can do” (!) Thank you again South Wales Police, it is so nice to know that you really care about the safety and security of youngsters and the people who pay your wages.
We have also observed Terry placing a tape measure across the alleyway on the opposite side of the theatre (School Street side), and photographing it. What this has got to do with him or the land on the yard side, we have no clue. You can see a video of this here.
Anyway, things went quiet for a short while at the beginning of 2023, as Terry thought he had got what he wanted at last and was convinced that Dan would receive a custodial sentence over the Public Order matter.
We were now in March 2023 and at last invited to attend a planning meeting for a decision as to whether our dressing rooms could remain, if we were able to extend them, and also restore the front facade of the theatre. At this planning meeting, Terry told the committee that we had built “illegal shanty buildings on land that we did not own”. Terry also accused us of “land-grabbing to take adverse possession” of our own land. If anything is clear, it is that we own the land and it is Terry who is trying to take possession of it. At the meeting, he also threatened the committee in that if the plans were passed, he would seek judicial review to have it overturned (Watch that part of the planning meeting below).
This was yet another attempt by Terry to close the Savoy and gain the land, as he knew we could not operate without dressing rooms. Anyway, the plans were passed and we were able to keep the dressing rooms, add the extension and start making plans to approach the now difficult task of restoring the front facade.
On the subject of ‘shanty buildings’, we will admit that the yard is a little cluttered and untidy. However work is still ongoing here and if it were not for Terry’s constant complaints, harassment and the extra work he has put upon us, the work would have been completed a long time ago. Considering that we converted the Savoy in a relatively short time (before Terry came on the scene), it is frustrating beyond words that Terry has hindered us in our work and nearly ruined us. But then again, that is what he said he would do in 2019.
In June 2023, we decided to carry out work on the yard. This involved replacing the temporary boundary barriers and installing new fences to try and smarten it up a bit. (This also included installing a fence on the left-hand side of the Boars Head garage, as Terry had convinced us by then that the land immediately outside the Boars Head garage belonged to the Boars Head itself. This was proved to be false a couple of months later (by Terry himself as it happens!), so we removed said fence, with a view to installing it at its correct boundary location (intersecting the centre of the garage) once confirmed by a land surveyor).
Given the right of way on this side of the yard, we gave notice of the works by means of a sign on our shed with plans and a rough timescale. Not long after starting the works, Terry obviously turned up (it was bound to happen given the notice). He hung around where we were working and prevented us from continuing. He told everyone to “get off his land” (here we go again), forced us away and would not let anyone on that side of the yard. At the end of the video you will see Terry get into his car and purposely move it over the area on which we were working and leave.
It was all a waste of time on Terry’s part, as we moved the car the next day and completed the work anyway, however once the fence to the left of the Boars Head was put in (explanation above), Terry, in his stroppy, childish defiance, parked another car at the top of the yard, where it remained for over two months (he even went on holiday and left it there). He could have taken it away at any time, but chose not to out of spite. (Just a note, he had written in his court defence “I do not park on the yard”. Given this, previous, and current events, this statement is very hard to believe!)
So, back to the other incidents
To cut an already (very) long story short, considering in Dan’s 63 years, he had never been in trouble with the police, in June 2023 he found himself up at Merthyr County Court for the so-called ‘Public Order Offence’ that Terry had accused him of in December 2022. The court solicitor did say that a custodial sentence had been recommended and requested by the local police (the local police who were supposed to be helping us, but no surprise there!), however, the judge was very understanding and sympathetic over the incidents that had led to this. He gave Dan a light sentence of an 18-month “be a good boy order”, and commented that he “believed we had reached a point where we did not know where to turn for help”. The judge advised that the best way forward was to now seek an injunction against Terry Evans, and he felt we had a good strong case.
So to court we go
We applied to the courts for an injunction and served this on Terry in July 2023 with all the photographic and written evidence, along with many witness statements. Terry returned his defence that quite frankly did not add up. Times and dates were not correct, and it contained many lies, fabricated events and exaggerated stories about how he was “attacked, beaten, intimidated and terrorised” and that we had “taken his access lane and land owned by another”. It was quite frankly laughable!
We attended a court hearing at Pontypridd Court in July 2023, during which the judge explained that it was not a simple case and would involve moving it to multi-track and transferring it to Cardiff. From there Dan attended a case management hearing in January 2024 (online, with Terry not being present). At this hearing Dan was told that Terry had only engaged the services of a solicitor a week earlier, and this solicitor admitted he “didn’t know the case that well”. The judge at this hearing seemed to understand our situation, and thought that the vague right of way that we were burdened with should be updated and made more relevant to the present time (ie: The with or without vehicles shouldn’t need to be included as there was nowhere for vehicles to travel to, other than the Boars Head garage which was built by illegally knocking down our boundary wall).
We were notified a short while later that another case management hearing would be scheduled for June 2024. Before this hearing though, Terry’s solicitor requested that the whole case be ‘struck off’ in its entirety, as Terry denied that he had ever harassed us or caused trouble and he was believed by his solicitor. (We wonder to this day as to whether Terry had shown him all the proof of such harassment that we had sent in as part of the case, or conveniently eliminated certain items). A ‘striking off’ hearing was to be held in Cardiff on 16th May 2024, and indeed the case was ‘struck off’.
The judge (a different judge to the one via video link in January) was not one bit interested in all the evidence that we had collected, witness statements and CCTV (in fact, this evidence wasn’t even in the court room with her (it was all signed for by the courts and copies sent back to us as procedure in the months leading up to the hearing), and the judge wasn’t interested in looking at the copies Dan had with him as backup). She based her decision on the fact that Terry’s solicitor simply denied his client had ever harassed us, and that in any case, if he had, he had refrained from doing so for the few months before the hearing (obviously) and was now being ‘a good boy’.
Yes, we know what you are thinking... Something stinks and this was just an easy way out! We intend taking this matter further in a bid to prove that Terry did intend to lie to and mislead the police and the courts.
Additionally, looking at reviews of Cardiff Courts online, we are not the only people whose evidence has mysteriously gone missing, and are again not the only people who have had such concrete evidence completely ignored. We wonder whether it was the same judge who made a decision on these cases also? We will possibly never know.
The consequence of being targeted by Terry and having our lives torn to shreds over the last two years and nearly losing our theatre is now going to cost Dan £18,000. Yes, that is what the court awarded Terry for his fun, games, lies and actions against us. Terry’s original claim against us was for over £80,000 (most of this going to him personally). The man is greedy and sneaky, and could not care less about the Savoy. He has always said that he “has nothing against the theatre and fully supports it” (in public). Well he has a strange and sadistic way of showing it, we think you will agree! We can honestly say that South Wales Police have been a total waste of time as well. The court would not help or give us any answers, and the hearing was totally one-sided and unfair (whatever happened to a fair trial?).
Now we are not bad losers, we believe in the truth and facts, and were under the impression that the British justice system was based on this. Terry lied and that is fact. Had the case been heard in its entirety, we could have proved every single lie he told. We feel this is why he wanted it struck-off in the first place.
Since the striking off of the case in May 2024, Terry has once again (as predicted) resorted to his old tricks of blocking the fire escape route, parking on the yard, photographing people and our property, eavesdropping on private conversations, and ordering people off of our land, as well as being rude and intimidating to us and our staff. If anyone even dares to question his actions or use that parcel of land (our land) he just replies with “I don’t want to speak to you, goodbye” or “Go away, you’re bothering me”.
Just a week after the hearing, he drove at Dan in his car at speed as Dan crossed School Street. Although we had the incident on CCTV and Terry noticeably accelerated up the hill on seeing Dan, the police once again did not wish to know, stating “We can see there’s history here, but you won’t get far with this. We have shown it to numerous officers, and he did come round the corner a bit fast (a bit!), there’s nothing we can do.” It may not look as if it was that close, but Dan felt the car brush the back of his legs. He didn’t even realise at the time it was Terry behind the wheel as he had his back to the road, but Hayley saw it happen from the front porch of the theatre. Terry was smirking the whole time, knowing exactly what he was doing.
Terry has also accelerated up the yard at speed on many occasions, so we have now had to install speed humps using funds that the theatre quite frankly could do better things with. Terry has also started driving up the land very early in the morning (sometimes as early as 5.20am) with his radio turned up, the car windows open and revving his engines as much as he can. Here is just one small example.
I wonder just what he can think of next or indeed just how far Terry will go in his desperate attempts to ruin us and close the Savoy Theatre. He has no boundaries, is a spiteful narcissist and we are sure he will continue his vendetta in an attempt to get his own way.
On the evening of 03/07/24 a friend of ours (whilst walking his dog) noticed the security wire for the entrance of our yard had been placed dangerously across the footpath (another attempt by Terry to try and get us in trouble), so he picked it up and hooked it back. At this, Terry walked down the yard and started shouting at him to “Keep your nose out, it’s none of your business! They lost in court! I can do what I like!” Well it is our friend’s business, as he was one of the ones Terry lied about in his court defence as it happens, and we have asked people to replace the wire if it is left on the floor. Terry still flatly refuses to replace it when he travels in or out of the yard. So if anyone notices the wire and sign on the ground, we would be very grateful if you could hook it up, thank you.
Terry has now started accusing us of putting nails down to puncture his tyres. We did explain to him that we used to break up pallets (for fire wood) on the Boars Head land when we used it, and the builders working on the Boars Head also threw bricks, wood and nails there when making temporary repairs to the Boars Head roof. As Terry is now driving on and off that land (without properly clearing it we will add) and churning it up, the nails are bound to come through. Besides, we have better things to do with our time and our nails. Strange that we have been over there and checked ourselves and found nothing, but Terry turns up and ‘mysteriously finds’ them. Looking at the CCTV, he appears to put them down himself and then photograph them. He is certainly adept to hiding things in his hands (did he used to be a magician?) and emptying out his pockets! (CCTV footage below).
Then on 17/07/24 Dan received a call from the police today stating that Terry had actually reported him for putting down nails in the yard. Dan invited the police to come over and look through the 40 days of CCTV to show this as a false accusation. No action was taken.
Terry continues to photograph our property, buildings and hang around hiding behind our shed by the rear gate to listen in to our conversations. When questioned about this, he just says, as usual, “leave me alone, I don’t want to talk to you, you are bothering me”.
What Terry is doing now is even more bizarre. He claims that he needs the land to park so that he can work on and maintain his property (although we have never seen him working there). He stated in his defence to the court that “there is no parking in Ton” (we all know there’s a problem there, however read on). So, what does Terry do most days? Well, he drives from his house and parks a vehicle on Llys Tylcha Fawr (Doctor’s Hill). The road is nearly always empty when he does this (more often than not it’s the only vehicle there). He then walks round to our yard on Collenna Road. Terry unclips the security wire and sign and throws it to the ground (lately across the footpath on purpose). He then walks up the yard, unlocks the garage and reverses the green Fiesta onto the drive. He then gets out, locks the garage and reverses the car (leaving the sign on across the footpath) and drives back home. Later in the day he will drive back in the green Fiesta, park it on the yard, unlock the garage and drive it in.
He will then reverse the black Fiesta (or lately his daughter’s grey Corsa) from the Boars Head land and park that on our drive. He then reverses the green Fiesta out of the garage again onto our land outside it, locks the garage, reverses the black Fiesta out and drives home. Sometimes this is repeated with each car many times a day, sometimes in a slightly different order depending on which car (or cars) is left here overnight. Finally at the end of the day, Terry will bring up the last car he took, do a car swap again and then walk off down that dodgy exit behind the Boars Head (his so called fire exit that we showed in an earlier video clip), walk round to the parked car and drive home. He does this virtually every day. What a waste of time and energy.
Sometimes he does this more times in a day - we have witnessed him swapping cars back and forth four times within the space of just an hour and a half before, and then going through the same process in the evening.
We will update this section with photos and videos as events progress, however, if you would like more details or would like to view more CCTV or documents of incidents, please call in. As we said before, his antics are very amusing and as the police stated, and I quote “these are not the actions of a normal man, that’s harassment that is”. However, as seen, they are not prepared to do anything about it.
Boars Head garage
We mentioned earlier that we would explain about the small garage that Terry is renting. This garage is situated half way up our yard and on the land owned by the Boars Head. It was constructed in 1997 with full planning permission, however, the application was false in its content and information. The application stated that no permanent structure would need demolishing and that no new access would need to be created. The facts are that the main boundary wall had to be demolished and a new access point through our boundary had to be made.
The position is that if an access point through the boundary wall existed at the time the right of way for that property was written (and it did, a gate), then that would be the only one permitted to be used under said right of way, and no widening or other access point should be made without express permission from the owner of the land burdened with the right of way (us). As it stood in 1965 (when the right of way was created) there was a single gate serving the bank, a single gate serving the Credit Union and a single gate serving the Boars Head, with no entitlement to widen them or create other openings and as explained earlier, the bank relinquished their right over the land at the point of the 1991 sale of the land to Dennis Lloyd and that we now own. As we also said, to build the garage, they demolished the wall and opened up the Boars Head land onto our land. Not only that, but the boundary wall intersected the centre of the garage door and this is not permitted. See the photo below.
Here also is our surveyors (LMS Wales Land Mapping Wales) plan to prove the true position of the legal boundaries.
We are now in a position where we wish to reinstate the boundary fence, and have every legal right to do so for our own security. Both the owner of the Boars Head and Terry are preventing us from legally replacing this boundary fence due to the illegal siting of the garage. The owner of the Boars Head has also attempted to take our land for access to his land for parking too, and in his planning application for the redevelopment of the Boars Head to flats (submitted in 2019), he red lined the Ordinance Survey map to include our land as his own. See plans plan here.
The next plan is the one he submitted as part of the application.
These plans were submitted after we had explained that the land was ours and shown him our title deeds. Compare them with the correct deed plans shown here.
Property developers (in our experience) have no bounds and will try to take what they want to line their own pockets regardless of who they ruin. There are probably decent ones out there, but we have yet to meet one!
Terry is now stopping people at the foot of the yard and telling them that we are forcing him to reverse onto the highway. He then tells them to complain to the council about us and that it would be very helpful to him if they did. If Terry talks to you and starts to accuse us of taking or stealing his land or of threats and actions towards him, don’t listen.
You have now seen for yourself the effort Terry has put into his attempts to ruin us, and the documents we have shown are proof without doubt that we own the Savoy and all the land to the side and around it. Terry is only a tenant renting the small garage belonging to the Boars Head; he owns no land outside the bank’s boundary and does not enjoy a right over our land, but has now taken control of it as if it were his own. He will not let us use it for any purpose and questions everything we do.
On a very personal note from me (Dan): Hayley and I gave up everything we had and my Father gave us £83,000 to enable us to buy the Savoy and land. It has been a massive struggle to get it up and running. Our CCTV is monitored by five people (plus ourselves), and one of them is Dan’s Father who is 92 years old. It brings him to tears when he observes Terry’s spiteful antics, knowing that Terry is trying his hardest to take it from us and ruin everything we have. In fact, (as mentioned briefly above) since around 2018 our land has been targeted by developers to take as their own and we are fed up with it. The Savoy stood empty for ten years before we bought it and no one was interested. We are now plagued and at threat by Terry and these developers (we’re hoping that the development of Capel Y Ton will not pose any problems!).
The theatre is now suffering through the time we are wasting over the land issues. The yard is not just a working yard, it is also our garden, and many times we have to retreat back into the theatre when Terry turns up (as suggested by the police). If we are not in the yard, Terry simply brings up or takes his car, but if we are in the yard, he will he will stare at us, take photos, loudly rev his cars, and hang around on purpose to eavesdrop. Sometimes he will sit there in his car with the door slightly open for 20 or more minutes to watch us and listen in. On one occasion when we were working on the new dressing room roof, a friend came up to talk to us. Terry sat in his car photographing or videoing us in conversation. It is a complete invasion of privacy, not only for us, but for people associated with us. Sometimes they are targeted and harassed by Terry outside of the theatre around town, once he knows they are involved here. Even our clients have been approached by him away from the theatre.
This whole situation has been stressful beyond belief and we have indeed had many times when we just wanted to pack up and get out of here, especially when I see my lovely Hayley in tears of fear that we may lose the theatre and the frustration at having to log CCTV (we have hard drives full of it dating back to 2021 when this all started), and write each event in the diary (again as suggested by the police back in 2021). We are ignored by the police now, and don’t know who to turn to for help.
We would like to say a massive thank you to Jackie, Gail, Jim, Alan, Julie, David and everyone else who has listened, stuck by us and encouraged us to stay, and also those who provided witness statements of events. We would have given up by now without them. We are sure it is not over yet. Terry is a very determined and spiteful man with no thought of the impact he is having on the Savoy and it’s people, just to park a couple of cars and attempting to take the land once owned by the bank until 1991. Terry has also said that we are only here for the money and that we do not care about Ton or its people. Well that really hurts. We love the theatre, Ton and the people here and are proud to have been made welcome. I have met some desperate and nasty people in my life, but Terry Evans with his delusions of grandeur wins hands down. I and others who have witnessed Terry’s antics and actions all agree that he may need to seek professional help to control his misdoings.
What happens now?
Well, Terry served Dan with an enforcement order to pay him the £18,000 or he would seize the building and assets. Without any other option, Dan will pay it. However, we are not going to let it lie there. We have a theatre to run and preserve for the people of Tonyrefail to enjoy and be proud of, and whatever it takes, we will not give in and be bullied off of our land or forced to close the theatre by this greedy, spiteful and narcissistic little man.... Best we say no more.
Thank you for reading.
Daniel and Hayley
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