A MAN used a JCB digger to flatten his neighbour’s Volvo estate car after being driven mad by their barking dogs, a court heard yesterday.

Ian Jessett, a “mild-mannered” IT consultant, positioned the hefty metal bucket above the Volvo car and twice brought it crashing down on to the roof after a two-year dispute with his neighbours.

Jessett, 44, insisted that his peace in the small Norfolk village where he lived had been shattered by the incessant barking of his neighbour’s German shepherd dogs, Lucy and Paddington.

That night his neighbours, Wendy Sutton, an accountant, and her husband, Paul, 43, returned from an exhibition in London called Discover Dogs to their home in Stow Bedon, near Watton, but remained unaware of the state of their Volvo car because it was dark. They did, however, find a note from Jessett accusing them of “unneighbourly behaviour” because of their pets’ noise.

As the couple sat down to dinner, Jessett banged on the door and told them: “By the way, I have trashed your car and it is a good job you arrived home when you did because I was going to have a go at your house.”

Mr Sutton, the manager of a butcher’s business, ran outside and shone a torch on the mangled wreck of the vehicle. The couple then called the police. Jessett, who runs an IT company with ten employees, was fined £800 at Thetford Magistates’ Court after he admitted criminal damage to the Volvo last month.

The court heard that Jessett had become so desperate after the dogs had arrived at his neighbours’ home two years ago that he had bought an ultrasound device in the hope it would stop them barking.

Malcolm Plummer, defending, said that Jessett, who had lived at Walnut Tree Farm for seven years and worked from home, had initially got on well with the Suttons.

“At first there was no problem and they were good neighbours to each other, borrowing bits and pieces from time to time,” he said. “Then, two years ago, Mr and Mrs Sutton bought two German shepherd dogs. At first they were kept indoors, but then they built a run for the dogs at the back of their house and that is when it started.

“It was barking every single minute, every single hour, every day. It became quite intolerable. He had absolutely no peace and could not even sit in his own garden or conservatory.”

He said Jessett approached Mr and Mrs Sutton and the council and, after a brief respite, the barking continued. He then rigged up the ultrasound gear but took it down after the Suttons said that they were concerned what it did to the dogs.

On November 14, he used the JCB, kept on his seven-acre farm, to smash the car after Mrs Sutton’s mother left the dogs out after feeding them. Jessett wrote an apology to the Suttons and the dogs have been kept in the house and under control since the incident.Outside court Jessett, who lives with his partner, said: “I regret the circumstances and am extremely sorry.

“I have a nice house, a garden and conservatory, but have not been allowed to relax and forget about stress and problems. I am an extremely mild-mannered man. . . I just didn’t know what to do.”

Mrs Sutton, 42, said she hoped that the court case would mark an end of the dispute. She added: “I will send him a Christmas card. Why not? Life is too short and it is Christmas after all.”

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