A 74-year-old farmer from Klakring in Hedensted has been convicted of vandalism after tearing up his neighbor’s fence and ploughing through a trench dug for a new hedge.
The verdict was handed down on Monday, according to DR. The farmer must pay five day-fines of 250 kroner each. He has accepted the judgment.
Per the indictment, he pulled iron posts and chicken wire out of his neighbor’s property and threw the material into her garden. He also drove onto the plot with a plough and destroyed a trench prepared for a new hedge.
A conflict over 107 square meters
The dispute centers on 107 square meters of land at the edge of Hanne Kanzento’s property, where it meets the farmer’s fields. The farmer had used the strip as part of his farming operation for years. As stated by DR, he argued that an agreement with a previous owner gave him the right to the area.
Kanzento moved into the house in 2022 and concluded that the land belonged to her plot. She told DR the area amounts to 11 percent of her property, and noted that the farmer has roughly 400 hectares of farmland available elsewhere.
She also brought a civil case to establish her right to the land. In July 2026, Retten i Horsens ruled that the farmer had not acquired the area through prescription, known in Danish law as hævd. The criminal case over the damaged fence and hedge trench was handled separately.
Kanzento described the process as long and exhausting. According to her account to DR, she has moved out of the house and now mainly uses it as a kind of summer house. She said she has not felt safe at the property for several years.
She said she found it distressing to watch a fence she had put up carefully being pulled out repeatedly. The farmer’s lawyer, Louise Reuss Boesen, rejects the claim that he removed the fence on multiple occasions. The farmer declined to be interviewed.
Boesen said the conflict has also been hard on her client. As noted by DR, she stated that he has worked for 60 years, has no previous convictions, and is a well-liked local resident. She added that receiving such a conviction late in life is difficult for him.
TV Syd reported on September 5, 2026, when the vandalism case came before the court, that the defense had sought an acquittal. The conviction marks a provisional end to a neighbor dispute running since 2022.
