WHITE HORSE Pubs of Otham

DOVER KENT ARCHIVES

Page Updated:- Monday, 04 October, 2021.

PUB LIST

PUBLIC HOUSES

Paul Skelton

Earliest 1779-

White Horse

Open 2020+

White Horse Lane/Honey Lane

Otham

01622 862069

https://whatpub.com/white-horse

Above photo 2009 by Oast House Archives Creative Commons Licence.

Above sign left, May 2003, sign right, 2010.

With thanks from Brian Curtis www.innsignsociety.com.

The pub closed in 2010, but opened again shortly after being purchased by Catherine McCann for £250,000 having outbid the locals who wished to purchase it themselves and had raised £235,000 in under a month. The premises was renovated in 2014 but in 2015 it appears that the money used for the purchase etc. was from crimes committed from the family.

Kentish Gazette 06 March 1779.

To be Sold by Auction, At the House of Benjamin Hatch, known by the sign of the "White Horse" at Otham, in the County of Kent, on Monday the 15th Day of March instant, between the Hours of Three and Four O'Clock in the Afternoon, the following Freehold Estate by Mr. Thomas Argles ( if not sold before by Private Contract.)

All that Messuage or Tenement, Barn, Yard, Garden, Orchard, and several Pieces or Parcels of Land, mostly planted with Hops and Fruit, containing together fourteen Acres, more or less; situate in the Parish of Langley in the said County, and late in the Occupation of John Slaney, deceased.

For further Particulars enquire of John Roffe, Attorney, at Maidstone; or of John Bradshaw, at Rumwood Green, who will shew the Premises.

From Maidstone Journal and Kentish Advertiser 05 May 1840.

A report shows 9 properties for sale by direction of the Executors under the will of the late William Baldwin, Esq.

Lot 8. - A well accustomed Public House, known as the "White Horse," at Otham, in the occupation of Mr. Botten.

The Maidstone Telegraph, 15 August 1868.

Monday, August 10th.

Before W. Balston, Esq.

Eliza Barden, a domestic servant in the service of Phineas Dudding, landlord of the "White Horse," Otham, was charged with stealing 8s. 9d. his property.

Prisoner was committed to the Bearsted sessions.

From the kent-messenger by Ed McConnell, 18 Sep 2015.

Court ends pub dispute with neighbour.

A landlady of a village pub has been cleared of assaulting her neighbour following a lengthy dispute.

Catherine Small, who runs the White Horse Inn in Otham, appeared at Maidstone Magistrates’ Court last Friday to stand trial accused of smashing a bottle over Peter Middleton’s head.

Her daughter, Catherine McCann, appeared alongside her after allegedly stealing Mr Middleton’s iPhone after he filmed the assault.

The court heard how on the evening of May 31 Miss McCann was getting ready for bed when she heard shouting from outside.

At first the 27-year-old thought her mother’s dog, which was being walked by a friend, had been hit by a car but when she approached the commotion she realised Mrs Small was arguing with Mr Middleton – who is known as John.

The mother of one, who was heavily pregnant at the time, said she tried to defuse the situation, adding while her mother had been drinking she was not drunk, which was disputed by the prosecution.

She said Mr Middleton was racially abusive to her and pushed her to the floor before kicking her.

However 63-year-old Mr Middleton claimed Miss McCann approached him aggressively and snatched his phone which he had been using to film Mrs Small’s abusive behaviour.

He said the 56-year-old publican then hit him from behind with a bottle of Budweiser.

The incident followed a long feud, with Miss McCann saying Mr Middleton did not like them running the White Horse Lane pub.

Representing herself, Mrs Small said her family and Mr Middleton had issues and would be glad if they left the village.

She added this was his motive for making the accusations and there was no evidence other than his statement that she had attacked him.

Magistrates said they found it hard to believe Miss McCann, who gave birth two weeks after the incident, would have been able to steal Mr Middleton’s phone and could not prove beyond reasonable doubt either offence had been committed.

They found both defendants not guilty.

From the https://www.kentonline.co.uk By Ed McConnell, 18 December 2015

McCann family of White Horse Inn, Otham, to pay almost £100k after police raids.

A family will have to surrender almost £100,000 after a judge ruled money found stashed at the village pub where they live was the proceeds of crime.

A total of £89,250 belonging to Catherine and Jerry McCann, their son Jerry jnr and their son-in-law Daniel Hills was seized from the White Horse Inn, Otham, in three police raids in February and June, 2014, and May this year. The raids followed burglaries in the area.

During a three-day trial at Maidstone Magistrates’ Court last week Gordon Menzies, representing Kent Police, told Deputy District Judge Michael Goodwin there was no identifiable source of the money and it stemmed from crimes linked to the family.

He claimed the family was a network of burglars who funded their lavish lifestyle through crime and argued some of the money came from two burglaries in Otham and Tovil where a total of £20,000 in cash, watches and jewellery was stolen.

While no one was convicted of the crimes and no items found at the White Horse Lane pub were linked to the thefts, Mr Goodwin ruled money found at the premises stemmed from the offences.

During the hearing Mr Menzies said between 2003 and 2011 the McCann’s had paid no tax and spent £690,000 on expensive cars, watches and property.

He referred to a ‘black hole’ in their finances and asked: "Are they the world’s best savers or were they involved in burglaries?"

Catherine McCann purchased the White Horse Inn for £250,000 in 2010 – money which it is claimed came from the sale of their Sutton Road home seven years earlier – in the process outbidding villagers who raised £235,000 in less than a month.

Senghin Kong, representing Mrs McCann in the civil proceedings, said the remaining money spent during this period came from the modest amount earned by Mrs McCann buying and selling things and business carried out by Jerry McCann between 2005 and 2008 in Ireland, when the couple were separated.

But the court heard during that period 55-year-old Mr McCann had been stopped a number of times in England and had given an address in the same road as his wife in Essex.

Mr Menzies asked Mrs McCann: “The father of your children was living next to you and you just happened to miss each other like ships in the night?”

To which she replied: “I suppose so, like ships in the night, yes.”

The family had argued the cash came from pub takings, rent on a property in Essex and Mr McCann’s scrap metal and car dealing businesses, with Mr Hills, 37, claiming just over £6,000 of the total was money he had been loaned for a car.

Mrs McCann, 57, who runs the pub, said the reason 1,042 £50 notes were found during the first raid was many of her customers were travellers who didn’t have bank accounts and ground workers who were paid in the denomination.

She claimed the police targeted her family as they were travellers.

When quizzed about her involvement in crime she said the only time she had been involved in burglaries was when the police stormed her house and took her money.

Mr Menzies said even if the cash had a legitimate source, no tax had been paid on it.

He said investing non-taxed money constitutes money laundering.

The court heard it was the family’s intention to invest it in land.

Mr Menzies said documents found during the first raid referred to Nickley Wood in Ashford, which was on the market for £67,500.

Today Mr Goodwin ruled all of the cash seized was linked to crime, was destined for future investment and should be surrendered.

He said: “Having considered the evidence I am satisfied the applicant has proved that the respondents and their family are heavily involved in criminal activity, including burglaries and rogue trading.”

The family will also have to pay Kent Police £10,020 in costs.

A Kent Police spokesman said: "Any cash forfeited is paid to the Home Office and then we receive 50% back. That money then goes back into the money laundering/economic crime teams that carry out POCA investigations."

The other half goes to the government.

From the https://www.express.co.uk By Jon Austin, 18 Mar, 2016

Travellers who pleaded poverty at illegal site exposed as 'cash-rich tax-dodger crooks'.

A TRAVELLER family who claimed for years they illegally developed green belt farmland into a caravan site because they could not afford to pay for an official pitch have been exposed as cash-rich, tax-dodging pub owners.

Members of the McCann family were ordered to hand over nearly £100,000 cash after a judge ruled the money stashed in the White Horse Inn in Otham, near Maidstone, was the proceeds of crime.

A sum of £89,250 that was split between Catherine, 57, and Gerry McCann, son Gerry Jnr and son-in-law Daniel Hills was seized from the village pub during three separate police raids that followed local burglaries.

During a hearing at Maidstone Magistrates’ Court Gordon Menzies, representing Kent Police, told Deputy District Judge Michael Goodwin the family had no visible income source and the cash stemmed from crimes connected to the family.

The three day hearing was a near polar opposite of the evidence heard during a series of tax payer-funded planning battles and High Court clashes between Mrs McCann and Basildon Council from 2003 to 2010.

Mrs McCann claimed legal aid, and that she was separated from Mr McCann, 55, as she fought the council to stay on an illegal traveller pitch cheekily named after Henry VIII's Hampton Court palace in London.

The family were among several who concreted over green fields off Hovefields Avenue, Wickford, Essex, from 2003, before a seven-year tax payer-funded legal battle which went all the way to the High Court.

Throughout this, Mrs McCann, also known as Catherine Small, claimed she and several children didn’t have enough money to buy a caravan on a legal pitch, had a cultural aversion to traditional housing, and that they would be homeless if Basildon Council evicted them.

Gerry and Catherine McCann outside Maidstone Magistrates.

But it has since emerged that the family had lived in a string of conventional houses before moving to Hovefields, including privately-owned houses in Harrow and Kent, and a council house in Romford.

They were later evicted from for this home for anti-social behaviour after they pitched up in Hovefields.

Mrs McCann was previously forced to pay back more than £6,500 to the Legal Aid Agency, after it emerged that during the planning battle she paid £230,000 in cash for a five-bedroom house called Southview, just a few hundreds metres from the illegal caravan pitch in question.

Investigators in the latest confiscation case confirmed that Southview was retained by the McCanns and rented out after they were evicted from Hovefields by Basildon Council in September 2010, after losing the legal tussle.

And three months after being evicted Mrs McCann bought the Kent pub for £250,000 cash at auction, outbidding locals who tried to club together to buy it for £235,000, and began running it with Mr McCann.

At the Maidstone Magistrates Court civil confiscation hearing, which followed an application by Kent Police, district judge Goodwin said some of the family were in a network of burglars who funded their lavish lifestyle through crime.

Having considered the evidence I am satisfied the applicant has proved that the respondents and their family are heavily involved in criminal activity, including burglaries and rogue trading.

He argued some of the money in question came from two burglaries in Otham and Tovil where a total of £20,000 in cash, watches and jewellery was stolen.

No one was actually convicted of the crimes, and no other stolen items from these burglaries were found at the pubs, but Mr Goodwin ruled money found at the premises had come from those offences.

However, police can still apply to a magistrates court if they believe there is sufficient evidence at the lesser level of on the balance of probability that the money originated from criminal or illegal acts in order to seize cash taken during an investigation, as happened in this case.

Mr Menzies told the court between 2003 and 2011 the McCann’s paid no tax, but spent £690,000 on expensive cars, watches and property.

He said there was a "black hole" in their financial records and asked: "Are they the world’s best savers or were they involved in burglaries?"

Senghin Kong, representing Mrs McCann in the civil proceedings, said the money for the pub came from the sale of their former Kent home sold seven years earlier.

There was no explanation as to where the money used to buy Southview two years earlier came from.

Mr Kong said the remaining money spent over the eight-year period was from the "modest amount" earned by Mrs McCann buying and selling things and business carried out by Mr McCann, who has run a number of driveway businesses, between 2005 and 2008 in Ireland, when the couple were separated.

From the https://www.kentlive.news 3 May 2020

Armed police raid White Horse pub in Otham after fight between 'large group of people'

Six men and two women have been arrested after officers were called to White Horse Lane.

Eight people have been arrested after a reported fight near Maidstone last night (May 2).

Armed police raided The White Horse pub in Otham shortly before midnight after a large group of people allegedly became involved in a "verbal and physical altercation".

Witnesses also reported seeing a possible weapon.

Six men and two women have been taken into custody by Kent Police on suspicion of affray.

A cordon was also put up around the pub in White Horse Lane.

Officers have since confirmed that no serious injuries were suffered and no weapons have been found.

A spokesman for Kent Police said: "Eight people have been arrested after Kent Police officers, including armed patrols, attended a disturbance in Otham.

"A large number of people were reported to have become involved in a verbal and physical altercation in White Horse Lane shortly before midnight on Saturday 2 May 2020.

Upon arrival, officers arrested six men and two women on suspicion of affray and were taken into custody as enquiries continue.

From the https://www.kentonline.co.uk By Katie Heslop, 4 May 2020.

Group released under investigation after arrests made at White Horse Lane, Otham.

Eight people arrested after armed police and the force's helicopter were called to a major disturbance in a quiet village, have been released pending further investigation.

A large number of people were involved in a verbal and physical altercation in White Horse Lane, Otham, just before midnight on Saturday.