'Trump's men grabbed my land'

In an astonishing attack, Mr Forbes, the salmon fisherman who has been branded a "village idiot" by the American tycoon, accused the Trump Organisation of illegally "grabbing" the land where his family have dried their salmon nets for generations.

Mr Forbes, one of a handful of residents on the Menie Estate at Balmedie who are refusing to sell their homes to make way for Mr Trump's 750 million golf resort, claimed the Trump Organisation had arrived without warning on Tuesday, moved heavy plant and equipment on to land to which he holds title, fenced off the area and removed everything he owned from the site.

It was revealed last month that Mr Forbes, 57, had been charged with theft and given a formal warning after he allegedly removed flags which the Trump empire had put up to mark the boundaries of the tycoon's land.

Mr Forbes claimed yesterday that the row had escalated dramatically on Tuesday, when workmen employed by Mr Trump had moved on to a parcel of land near his cottage which he uses for drying his salmon nets.

Mr Forbes, whose home has been described as a "pig sty" by Trump, claimed the land had been in his family for more than 50 years.

He said: "The piece of land they have taken away is where I dry and mend all my nets, but it's been in the fishing since time began. They've just come along, pushed everything off and put up a fence and said 'to Hell with you.'

"I have had that land since 1982 and my uncle had it since 1957. It's just not right."

Martin Glegg, a spokesman for Tripping Up Trump, the organisation formed to oppose the resort development, said: "The home-owners are being intimidated. Donald Trump has basically come in and taken land which he believes is his, but Michael Forbes has the deeds to show otherwise. It is aggressive behaviour from the Trump Organisation, and that is what we've come to expect."

Earlier this year, Mr Forbes sold a plot of his land to Tripping Up Trump in an attempt to frustrate the golf resort development, implementing the same legal framework used by the Heathrow Airport anti-expansion protesters to block the construction of a third runway. The plot, dubbed "the Bunker", is now jointly owned by thousands of anti-Trump protesters.

A spokeswoman for the Trump Organisation dismissed the allegations. She said: "The land belongs to Trump International. Michael Forbes was notified well in advance that a fence would be erected to demarcate our land boundary and for health and safety purposes. These boundaries have been clearly illustrated on our public masterplan documents for many years and have been marked out using advanced GPS technology and land survey maps."

'Trump's men grabbed my land' - Forbes