A 75-year-old British man and his 82-year-old sister have been given suspended prison sentences for disturbing their neighbours — including by playing French radio at top volume.
Thomas and Mary Smith, from Wirral, near Liverpool, north-west England, were handed 14-day sentences suspended for 12 months following a hearing at Liverpool County Court.
The sanction for contempt of court was imposed after the siblings breached an anti-social behaviour injunction imposed in February last year, Wirral council said in a statement.
Caroline Laing, from the municipal authority’s anti-social behaviour team, said the pair had made their neighbours’ lives a misery at all hours of the day and night for the past five years.
”The neighbours said they were playing French radio,” she said. ”They have deliberately played the loud music with the purpose of disturbing their neighbours, thrown various items into and at their neighbours’ property, including eggs and glass bottles, and banged on their adjoining walls …
”Their behaviour has caused considerable distress, frustration and worry to their neighbours.”
The Smiths’ injunction will remain in force until February 28 2008. — Sapa-AFP