Top judges have come to the aid of a mother and her four young children who were ordered from their home amid claims that they made their neighbours's lives a misery. Appeal Court judges heard that an order for Susan Hartless's immediate eviction was so "draconian" that police who turned up unannounced on the family's doorstep in October last year took pity and decided against throwing her and her children - aged from 14 to just six - out onto the streets at night. Lord Justice Brooke said Ms Hartless's eight- year-old daughter was looking forward to joining other Brownies on a village carnival float and one of her son's was excited by his seventh birth, just two days away, when police, housing officials and a television cameraman arrived at the family's front door. Until that night, Ms Hartless had received not a single warning from her landlords that her behaviour, or that of her children, might put them at risk of eviction. It had been an "enormous surprise" to the family when the eviction team arrived on their doorstep without any prior notice, added the judge. It was, he said, "hard to envisage a more intrusive" court order for immediate eviction than that obtained "without notice" from a judge by the family's landlords - Moat Housing Group South Ltd. Lord Justice Brooke, sitting with Lord Justice Judge and Lady Justice Arden, said the eviction should have been suspended on condition that Ms Hartless and the father of her children - Carl Harris - behaved themselves. The terms of injunctions issued against the parents - which, among other things banned them from large parts of their home town, Liphook- were also "much too wide", the judge ruled. He also overturned as "inappropriate" Antisocial Behaviour Orders issued against the pair, instead issuing permanent injunctions, banning them from causing a nuisance or harassing their neighbours in the future. Reprieving Ms Hartless, the judge overturned the immediate eviction order and replaced it with a possession order, suspended for two years on condition she keeps her children under control and abides by the terms of her lease. Urging the parents to make "a fresh start", Lord Justice Brooke said there were "worried people on the estate" which, he hoped, could be "a happy one in future and not contaminated by the feelings which were clearly running high". Earlier, the parents' counsel, Mr Jan Luba QC, told the court that Ms Hartless and Mr Harris had not been given a fair hearing, that the ASBOs went far beyond what was necessary and that the orders breached their fundamental right to respect for their home and family life, enshrined in the Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Lord Justice Brooke said there was no evidence that Moat Housing had made any complaint to Ms Hartless about her or her children's behaviour before applying for a "without notice" court order, ousting them from their home. Although the parents were not blameless, the majority of the problems on the estate had been caused by a family of eight who lived next door to Ms Hartless but who have now left the area, the court heard. A local judge had found that Ms Hartless's children were "out of control". They had been spitting, kicking footballs against cars and houses, threatening and bullying other children and abusive to children and adults alike on the estate. But Lord Justice Brooke nevertheless ruled, in a 75-page judgement, that injunctions issued against their parents were "much too wide". The nuisance caused by the family had been "so serious" that a possession order had rightly been issued - but the appeal judge ruled it should have been suspended on condition that the parents and their children behaved themselves in future. Mr Ashley Underwood QC, for Moat Housing Group, had earlier told the judges the evidence showed "serious and escalating antisocial behaviour" on the estate and the "rights and freedoms" of the family's neighbours had rightly been treated as paramount. But Lord Justice Brooke said he was not aware of any complaint having been made against the family since the traumatic events of October 29 last year.
