A JURY has cleared a Herefordshire man accused of racially taunting his African neighbours.

Alan Clewer, of Rosebury Place, Ewyas Harold, was accused of telling a Zimbabwean family to “go home” on August 21, 2007.

Mr Clewer, aged 58, was cleared last Thursday of racial intimidation following a three-day trial at Worcester Crown Court.

David Swinnerton, prosecuting, said Mr Clewer made racist remarks and a “cut-throat” gesture to the family during an argument over land. Mr Swinnerton repeated the remarks, which compared the family to pillaging South Africans.

“You’re just doing what you did to the blacks in South Africa,” he said, adding Mr Clewer mistook the family’s nationality.

Giving evidence, Mr Clewer said he told the family to go home, but insisted this meant the house, and not South Africa.

John Jackson, for Clewer, said the remarks had been “over-exaggerrated”, and were the result of a feud.

He also told the court that the cut-throat gesture was reported a day after a police visit, while another neighbour heard no racist remarks.

Judge Alastair McCreath called the case “a ridiculous situation”

and urged the two parties to resolve their differences.