A Scottish golf resort owned by Donald Trump is being taken to court for allegedly breaching the privacy of a rambler photographed by staff without her consent or knowledge.
The resort in Aberdeenshire was served with a court summons on Monday after Trump’s Scottish lawyers admitted that two staff members took mobile phone images of Rohan Beyts while she was on the course in April.
Trump International Golf Club Scotland, owned by the Republican presidential candidate, has been ordered to appear at Edinburgh sheriff court on 22 December to respond to a civil action lodged in the small claims court by Beyts this month.
Beyts is seeking damages of up to £3,000 ($3,650) after TIGCS rejected her initial requests by letter for an apology and damages. Her civil action claims the company is guilty of a criminal offence under the UK’s data protection and privacy legislation, after an investigation by the Guardian revealed the resort was in breach of the Data Protection Act.
The resort admitted it was not registered under the act with the Information Commissioner’s Office despite operating at least nine CCTV cameras and holding confidential records on its staff, its thousands of customers and its suppliers. It subsequently registered with the ICO in August.
In the US, meanwhile, Trump has threatened to sue any cinema that screens the documentary, You’ve Been Trumped Too. Made by Anthony Baxter, the film is a sequel to You’ve Been Trumped, in which Baxter was seen being forcibly arrested by police as he investigated allegations of intimidatory behaviour against the property tycoon’s neighbours in 2010.
The latest film accuses his staff of cutting off the water to Molly Forbes, an elderly widow living next to his Aberdeenshire course, for five years – a charge Trump has denounced as “highly offensive, defamatory and categorically untrue”.
She is the mother of Michael Forbes, the quarry worker and salmon netsman whose small holding, where she also lives, was described as a pigsty by Trump.
Beyts, a retired social worker who is active in the campaign group Tripping Up Trump, was filmed by his staff as she apparently squatted down behind a dune to urinate during a walk along the edge of the course with her friend Sue Edwards.
Beyts was charged with breaching the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 for causing an annoyance, after course staff used the images to make a complaint. Police told Beyts a golf resort guest had also been a witness.
She alleges the staff must have hidden before filming her, because she said both she and Edwards had looked hard to make sure there were no golfers or passersby visible when she squatted down.
“They deliberately concealed themselves and followed us,” Beyts said. “I couldn’t see anybody when I ducked down in the dunes. Sue was higher up on the dunes and she couldn’t see anybody.”
The charges against Beyts were dropped by prosecutors after she refused to accept a warning letter under the 1982 act and said she had a diagnosed medical condition.
Beyts and her lawyer, Mike Dailly, are considering a formal complaint to the ICO in tandem with the civil action.
Dailly said: “What’s important is that there is a claim here. What Ms Beyts is seeking to enforce is the right to protect personal data. That is guaranteed by the EU charter of fundamental rights, which requires member states to provide effective remedies when their rights are breached.”
The dispute highlights a long-running conflict involving Trump and his resort staff over Scotland’s strong right of access legislation, which gives people the right to walk across private land, such as golf courses and Highland estates, so long as the activity is not disruptive.
Dailly said Trump’s company was guilty of “a very cavalier disregard for the rule of law, and acting in a way which is highly oppressive to ordinary members of the public who are going about their lawful business”.
Trump admitted he had not heard of Scotland’s right to roam legislation when he gave evidence at a public inquiry in 2008 into whether or not to approve his plans for the resort.
After winning that inquiry, Trump has been accused by activists and his neighbours of blocking off the main public path across the course, in breach of the resort’s planning consent. A large locked gate has been installed that forces walkers to squeeze through a narrow gap against a hedge.
Beyts, a regular hill walker and outdoor sports enthusiast, said she had been out on the course with Edwards that day because her friend had been confronted by resort staff on previous walks, and needed support. “I see myself as supporting Scotland’s access code, the right to roam,” Beyts said.
In a statement on Monday, a TIGCS spokeswoman in Aberdeenshire said: “We have not received a letter from the court but our position remains the same that any claims brought against us by Rohan Beyts are baseless and we will continue to vigorously defend our business from troublemakers like this.”
Dailly said the summons was sent to the company’s registered office in Edinburgh.
