Sustainable farmer who moved from London to Cornwall to start a dairy farm on land owned by Dame Vivenne Westwood’s multi-millionaire son is ordered to pay him nearly £5,000 after losing court battle in feud over leaks
- Joseph Corré claimed for £2,324 in unpaid rent and another £2,000 for repairs
- Rebecca Shortt, 31, hadn’t paid for six months at farm in North Cornwall
A sustainable farmer who moved from London to Cornwall on land owned by Dame Vivienne Westwood’s multi-millionaire son to try her hand at agriculture has been ordered to pay him nearly £5,000 after failing to pay rent for six months.
Rebecca Shortt is on Universal Credit and says she will be put under ‘huge financial stress’ and there is ‘zero prospect’ of paying Joseph Corré after being told to cough up the cash.
The young mother had failed to pay rent for five months from April to September at the cattle farm which he owns between Bude and Morwenstow, in North Cornwall.
The 31-year-old, who has since relocated to mid-Cornwall, was taken to Bodmin County Court by the son of fashion designer Dame Vivienne and Sex Pistols manager Malcom McLaren who insisted it was not about the money.
She told Deputy District Judge Inglis she refused to pay as a water leak meant there was not enough water on the fields she used for her dairy cows and the farm was ‘untenable’.
Rebecca Shortt, 31, failed to pay rent for six months from April to September at the cattle farm between Bude and Morwenstow, in North Cornwall
Dame Vivienne Westwood’s multi-millionaire son Joseph Corré insisted taking the young mother to court was not about the money and it was about ‘integrity’
But Mr Corré said this was not true as there were streams running alongside fields bar one or two on the estate, there was a water source and access to a bore hole, and Ms Shortt also had access to a water bowser.
Ms Shortt was told to pay £2,324 in unpaid rent and another £2,000 in unpaid farm repair costs, and Mr Corré’s £551 legal fees following the hearing on Thursday.
‘I don’t have any money. I can’t pay it as I’m on Universal Credit. I have absolutely zero prospect of paying it,’ she said.
The start-up farmer said it will ‘put me at a great financial risk’.
‘It will put a huge financial stress on me,’ she said. ‘I don’t have anything to sell. He [Mr Corré] claims to be humanitarian and environmentalist and campaigned for Julian Assange’s release. He’s active in human rights campaigns yet he decided to take a young mum who’s trying to farm for wildlife to court for less than £5,000.’
She added: ‘I’m just glad my baby is safe and that I’ll be able to carry on my work to improve cow welfare and advocate sustainable farming. Fortunately having a clear conscience still doesn’t cost anything in Britain at the moment.’
The mother argued the gates and fences ‘were rotten in the first place’ and repairing them would improve Mr Corré’s property rather than just fixing them.
Ms Shortt, originally from Penge, in South London, signed a tenancy agreement with Mr Corré in 2019 with the idea to farm the land sustainably.
Dame Vivienne speaking in 2016 in support of her son who had just burned his £5 million collection of punk memorabilia. She died in 2022 aged 81
A second tenancy agreement was signed in 2021 when her private circumstances changed.
READ MORE: Vivienne Westwood joins son Joe Corre as he sets fire to his £5million punk collection
Ms Shortt discovered there was a problem when a huge water bill landed on her doorstep, reported CornwallLive. She told the court the water leak was on land at the farm used by Mr Corré for his own personal use.
She expected Mr Corré to fix the issue after he had told her to turn off the taps until the leak could be found.
She said: ‘The fields kept being swapped because of some rewilding idea he [Mr Corré] had.
‘I would not have agreed to pay this amount of rent if I had known there was a water issue. I left because of it and because of his aggressive bullying behaviour and constant harassment.
‘He swore at me because of the noise milking my cows made was disturbing his peace. He was threatening over all sorts of things.’
But Mr Corré denied making any threats and said he had become frustrated when Ms Shortt’s animals escaped, including cows running onto the A39 nearby and a flock of chickens pooing in front of a holiday let he owns.
He said: ‘She couldn’t control her animals. She was inexperienced in farming and was struggling.
Mr Corré with his then wife Serena Rees. The pair co-founded sexy lingerie company Agent Provocateur in 1994. The pair separated in 2007 when Ms Rees left him for ex-Clash bassist Paul Simonon
‘She tried different forms of farming but she couldn’t make it work and to be accused of bullying behaviour and being aggressive is not true. I never threatened her with eviction. I told her it was not working out between us. But she behaved dishonestly.’
He told the court he has since had a new tenant and there has been ‘no issue with water’ and denied the situation was ever desperate.
READ MORE: Farewell to the Godmother of Punk: Fashion world mourns Dame Vivienne Westwood after she died peacefully at her London home aged 81
Ruling in favour of Mr Corré, Judge Inglis said access to water was not a requisite of the tenancy agreement.
It also stated leaks would have to be paid by the tenant as well as repairs to boundaries and gates.
‘It’s not this court’s place to judge on the fairness of it, just on its legality,’ Judge Inglis said. ‘Even if it appears one-sided.’
The activist and businessman bought the land in North Cornwall 15 years ago because ‘Cornwall is his favourite place’.
He insisted taking the young mother to court was not about the money.
‘It’s a point of principle that’s all,’ he said. ‘I don’t care about the money. I gave someone a chance to do something and they acted in a dishonourable way. It’s about integrity.’
Mr Corré co-founded sexy lingerie firm Agent Provocateur with his then wife Serena Rees in 1994. The pair separated in 2007 when Ms Rees left him for ex-Clash bassist Paul Simonon.
Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren and Dame Vivienne. They married in 1967 and divorced 13 years later. Malcolm died of cancer, aged 64, in 2010
That same year they sold an 80 percent share in the company to private equity form 3i for £60 million following their divorce.
In 2017, Sports Direct tycoon Mike Ashley bought the upmarket lingerie brand for £25 million, which Mr Corré branded ‘a disgrace to British business’ and ‘preposterous’.
In 2007, Mr Corré rejected an MBE he was given for his services for the fashion industry in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list after claiming then prime minister Tony Blair was ‘morally corrupt’.
‘I have been chosen by an organisation headed by a Prime Minister, who I find morally corrupt, who has been involved in organised lying, to the point where thousands of people including children have suffered death, detention and torture in Afghanistan and Iraq.’
In 2016 he burned his entire £5million punk memorabilia, which included personal items belonging to his father and vintage clothing designed by his mother.
Asked why he did it, Mr Corré added that ‘Punk is Dead’ before saying that the genre has ‘lost all of its bite’.
Speaking at Bloomsbury House, London, he said: ‘Punk has been castrated and neutered by the corporate sector and the state. Hung, drawn and quartered.’
Dame Vivienne died peacefully in December 2022 at the age of 81 surrounded by her family in Clapham, South London.
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