A FIRM which sold tiny plots of land in the Highlands has gone into liquidation after it lost a high-profile defamation case against a former Greens MSP who questioned its practices.
Wildcat Haven Enterprises has appointed Lancashire liquidators Simply Corporate, according to a notice in The Gazette.
It has collapsed but still owes former Greens MSP Andy Wightman £60,000 in legal costs after he saw off a defamation case the company brought against him, the land reform campaigner told The National.
Paul O’Donoghue brought a case in the Court of Session against Wightman over comments he had made in blog posts in 2015 and 2016, claiming they had damaged his business’s reputation.
Lord Clark ruled that while Wightman had made incorrect claims about the business, he had not been guilty of defamation on the grounds O’Donoghue had failed to prove his firm had lost business.
In a notice published on the UK’s official public record on Monday, it was reported that Wildcat Haven Enterprises had collapsed into liquidation.
Speaking to The National, Wightman said he would seek to be compensated for the £60,000 he said the company owed him after its failed legal challenge against him.
He said: “The costs awarded to me were £170,000, approximately. So the £110,000 was paid over, which leaves £60,000 outstanding."
Wightman covered the costs of his court battle with the company, in which he was represented by top lawyer Roddy Dunlop, with a crowdfunder.
He said those who donated were refunded “pro rata” when he recovered part of his costs and added that because of the amount raised he was not £60,000 out of pocket himself.
According to Wildcat Haven Enterprises’ most recent company accounts, the firm was in the red to the tune of £16,695 in 2021.
Wightman added: “We were pursuing them for the £60,000 and telling them that we would be using all legal means to recover the debt and it was shortly after that that they applied for creditor voluntary liquidation.”
The former MSP said some of the money he had been paid back by the company had come indirectly from Douglas Wilson, the chief executive of Highland Titles, a firm which has come in for criticism in the past for selling novelty titles.
It was a tactic also pursued by Wildcat Haven Enterprises in funding its projects to create wildcat sanctuaries in the Highlands – though the practice has come under fire in the past, including from Wightman.
Critics have pointed out that while the titles give owners – who are told they are the Laird or Lady of a particular miniscule plot of land – legal rights against the seller, they are otherwise legally meaningless.
In practical terms, this would prevent the owner of the land from having it taken off them by the firm. But if the firm was to go into administration and its assets sold off, the owner would be unable to prevent this.
Scots law specifically prevents souvenir plots from being listed in the Land Register because it is thought this would take up too much of its time.
The National made repeated attempts to contact Simply Corporate for comment.
