A former business boss and mother-of-four must pay £116,000 for illegally chopping down a "magnificent" historic tree in her own garden after a 13-year battle.
Company director Claire Rands - wife of a wealthy tech pioneer - made six unsuccessful planning applications to remove the 100-year-old lime outside her luxury home.
She claimed she was worried about the risk posed by fires in surrounding grassland spreading to the tree, which was covered by a tree preservation order (TPO).
But a court heard Rands and her businessman husband Damon, 55, had been told their imposing £400,000 home in the leafy Allt-yr-yn suburb of Newport, South Wales, would increase in value by around £50,000 without the 70ft tree.
Ignoring the order, Rands, now 54, ignored the preservation order and had it chopped down anyway around a decade ago – a move which went unnoticed for several years until council officers noticed the tree was missing.
