A PROPERTY developer, accused of killing five protected trees that jeopardised a lucrative housing project, claimed neighbours may have done it to enhance their view.

Alistair Collier, 41, said the 70-foot pine trees were an asset and provided privacy to the plot of land on the millionaires’ row of Sandbanks.

He denied arranging for them to be slowly killed by ring-barking them and claimed in court local residents would have benefited from the damage to gain better sea views.

Collier also suggested aggrieved creditors owed money by his company could have carried out the attack.

Collier and former business partner Harvey Lee, 66, are accused of arranging for the trees to be killed in order to build three houses on the site.

The pair, who owned Barrington Homes, bought the plot of land for £4.5million and had hoped to sell the three properties for a combined total of £12million.

But after they were told they could not build over the roots of the five trees they had them killed in September last year, it is alleged.

Bournemouth Magistrates heard each tree had more than a foot of bark stripped away from its trunk, having the effect of killing them slowly like cut flowers in a vase of water.

Collier denied arranging for the three Corsican pines and two Scots pines to be killed and added: “This has had nothing but a detrimental effect on the site.

“They provided natural screening from the road. We thought, and still do believe, that if you are paying a lot of money for a property, you may well want privacy.”

Collier said his company had been legally free to remove the trees due to omissions in an original Tree Preservation Order in 1999.

He said they had removed others on the site but had chosen to leave these five by the time a new order was placed in 2004.

He said: “It was made quite clear to me that we could have taken these trees out if we wanted to, in addition to the ones we have taken out.

“We didn’t because we didn’t want to.

“Collier, of Forest Lodge, Wareham, and Lee, of Burton Road, Poole, deny 10 charges of damaging and destroying the five pine trees worth £50,000 in the grounds of a property in Banks Road.

The trial continues.