London - A judge launched a scathing attack on a homeowner who made his neighbours’ lives hell by playing loud recordings of monkey and chicken noises in the early hours.
Ian Wheatcroft, 44, subjected his neighbours to a campaign of ‘serious’ harassment for more than two years, setting up CCTV cameras which recorded them and even putting dog faeces in their garden. He set off alarms and played loud animal noises to wake Clive and Alice Jones, who lived in the neighbouring semi-detached house.
Cruise company director Jones and his wife, who shared a driveway with Wheatcroft outside their homes in Totton, Hampshire, felt they couldn’t use their garden because his cameras were pointed at it.
At Southampton Magistrates’ Court on Monday, District Judge Anthony Callaway launched a blistering attack on Wheatcroft, who had denied harassment.
He called Wheatcroft a ‘well-practised liar’ who was ‘staggeringly arrogant’.
#FreakinFoolFile: Londoner Ian Wheatcroft was arrested and is now on trial for waking his neighbors in the middle... https://t.co/nib29Jk1CB
— ROCK 107 (@ROCK107fm) August 10, 2016
Sentencing him to four months in prison, suspended for two years, a fine of £1,870, and a three-year restraining order preventing him from contacting the Joneses, the judge said: ‘You have disturbed their lives and at times made living there a horrible experience.’
The court heard that Wheatcroft had put his home up for sale.
Daily Mail