property may well pale beside the storm of controversy that has enveloped his attempts to build a seawall to protect what's left of his front yard.

Environment Minister Pamela Gordon yesterday told The Royal Gazette that her department had ordered a stop to the construction of Mr. Prescesky's three-deck concrete retaining wall after allegations he stole natural boulders from, and was destroying the foreshore of his Saucos Hill neighbours.

In addition Ms Gordon indicated Mr. Prescesky -- who had obtained a planning permit to rehabilitate his shoreline after it was damaged by Hurricane Felix -- had failed to notify inspectors that the work was in progress.

Because of that omission, regular inspections of the project had not been carried out, she indicated.

"When we issue a planning permit, it is valid for about two years and the onus is on the person to notify the Planning Department when the work is in progress,'' she said.

"The wall was not in accord with what plans called for; from an engineering point of view the design of what was going up was not what was approved by Planning.'' Mr. Prescesky could face fines, she indicated, "but first we're trying to identify where the difficulty happened. It could be a misreading of the plan or just plain ignorance and error. We're not out to punish anyone if it was done innocently.'' As for the allegations of theft and trespassing Ms Gordon told The Royal Gazette that was a private matter best left to other authorities.

The controversy came to a head just before the Labour Day weekend when neighbours noticed heavy equipment operating along the waterfront and residents of the Pokiok Road area began complaining about damage being done to their shoreline.

David Williams, co-owner of a neighbouring property, told The Royal Gazette that family members could see the damage done to their portion shoreline.

Before long Shadow Environment Minister Leon (Jimmy) Williams, "an old family friend'', heard and came to assess the damage.

"We don't have a problem with the three-decker wall going up to protect his property, but what he's done is removed all the natural boulders from the Williams' property,'' said the PLP's Mr. Williams.

"We are concerned with what's happening on the South Shore, period. Someone has to be held accountable.

"I couldn't believe what I saw. There were hundreds of dead landcrabs washed up on the sand and you could even see in the water where they had come in with bulldozers and scraped off the rocks.'' But David Williams was more direct: "He's stripped us naked to protect himself. He's taken all of our protection and laid it down in front of his seawall.'' WEATHERING THE STORM -- Work was stopped recently on Peter Perscesky's seawall after the Ministry of the Environment found the design was in conflict with the original Planning application.