An architect embroiled in a land ownership row with her neighbours has been fined £2,000 by a regulator after she sent them a string of abusive text messages littered with references to gas chambers and Nazi Germany. 
 
Karin Reenie Elliott was recently found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct by a disciplinary panel of the Architects Registration Board and has 28 days to pay the sum.
 
The Norwich-based architect accused her neighbours in 2017 of building a carport without permission and of knocking down a wall she claimed was on her land. 
 
She has admitted to sending the couple 23 abusive messages in 2018, including one that said: “You can’t just take someone else’s land or other property because you rather like the look of it. It's plain theft, and still illegal in England. We are not in 1930s Germany, we are not Jewish, we don’t wear yellow stars, and you won’t crush us.”

Another text said there were "no concentration camps in this fair country yet" and suggested her neighbours were "planning to build one."
 
Ms Elliott was reported to the police over the material which also included a reference to Kristallnacht and a text asking whether the family’s children would be “in charge of the gas chambers”.
 
A non-conviction restraining order was later imposed and criminal proceedings were dropped.  
 
Ms Elliott also sent a dozen similar messages to another neighbouring family, including one that said there “wouldn’t be enough comfort food in Norfolk to make up for the emotional trauma caused to any woman that had to s*ag your Nazi husband.”
 
The family had informed her they had rented a hot tub for the weekend and had apologised in advance for any inconvenience caused by the presence of her children in the garden on weekend evenings.
 
In a statement, Ms Elliott said she had not contacted her neighbours in over three years and would not send such messages again. 
 
She expressed “regret” over her text messages and use of “childish bad language.”
 
“I wanted to ensure that there was no ambiguity that I did not like them. But I went way too far. My text messages moved beyond these matters into personal insults.
 
“In mitigation, I would ask the members of the panel to understand what it feels like to be attacked. It’s hard not take it personally when strangers are smashing up your home,” she said.