A woman embroiled in an international legal row about ownership of her Cyprus villa has told of her distress at being served with court documents by two intrusive strangers.

Linda Orams, who is battling in the High Court to throw out the case brought by Greek Cypriot Meletios Apostolides, said the episode had been "very upsetting" for her, adding that the men had cajoled her to sign legal documents.

Questioned by Mr Apostolides' QC, Tom Beasley, she agreed his client had been "very pleasant" during a previous encounter at which he explained his family had owned the disputed plot in Kyrenia before the 1974 invasion.

Mrs Orams, from Hove, told Mr Justice Jack, who is hearing her appeal against Mr Apostolides' bid to enforce two judgements of a Nicosia court granting him possession of the land: "That was the first definite information I had about that."

But two weeks later two strangers visited Mrs Orams, 59, while was alone in her garden at dusk. She was handed some documents by the men as she tended the garden. She said she had no real inkling what they were about as she could not read Greek.

She was testifying on the second day of the High Court dispute about whether the Nicosia court's rulings can be enforced in the UK. She and her husband David, 61, bought an idyllic plot in the northern part of Cyprus.

They finished building their new home four years ago - complete with swimming pool - set on a 2,400sqft plot near Kyrenia, the court heard earlier. Mr Orams, who worked for the South Eastern Electricity Board, had spent the bulk of his savings, about £160,000, on the villa.

Their QC, Cherie Booth, said the Orams' had become "unwittingly caught up" in the aftermath of a 40-year-old conflict between the Greek and Turkish communities of the fragmented island - exacerbated by the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974.

Their misfortune was to have acquired a plot that once belonged to Mr Apostolides, a Greek Cypriot, driven out by the Turkish invasion. He wants the Orams' villa demolished and the land restored to him. But the problem is that Kyrenia is in the "unrecognised" state of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), north of the Green Line patrolled by the UN since 1974.

Two Greek Cypriot courts have already decided in Mr Apostolides' favour but the verdict was unenforceable on TRNC soil so he is bringing his case to London to make a claim against their assets in Britain. The Orams say their Hove home could be "on the line" if the ruling goes against them.

Ms Booth said the Orams' "nightmare" had led to Mrs Orams being "threatened with imprisonment" for contempt of court "at the behest of Mr Apostolides" in Cyprus last year - only for that application to be withdrawn "at the very last moment".

The hearing continues.