A lawsuit brought by prominent landlord Fergus Wilson against vlogger Danny Hyde regarding comments on his YouTube page has been thrown out.

Wilson was suing Hyde for £10,000 under the Malicious Communications Act, but instead has been ordered to pay £3,000 costs.

Wilson was angry about a video criticising the landlord’s policy to ban non-white tenants “because of the curry smell they leave behind,” so brought a private prosecution against Hyde.

Hyde had sought to raise £10,000 through crowdfunding to defend himself but last week was offered pro-bono support by Giles Peaker of Anthony Gold and counsel Gerard Clarke of Blackstone Chambers.

The case was thrown out during a hearing at Yeovil County Court and the District Judge awarded £3,000 in pro-bono costs against Wilson, to be paid to a pro-bono legal charity.

Peaker said: “I’m delighted the claim was dismissed. It had no legal basis and was brought simply to threaten a young man who had said something that Fergus Wilson didn’t like.

“Danny Hyde was simply exercising his right to free expression. The award of pro-bono costs against Fergus Wilson will hopefully make clear that threatening people with baseless claims is no way to behave.”