Moment nightmare neighbour in dressing gown trashes next-door’s trees after fuming they are ‘hanging over property’
THIS is the moment a “neighbour from hell” was caught on CCTV damaging next-door’s trees in her dressing gown.
Julie Bontoft, 55, was caught on camera chopping branches off an adjoining tree to her home in Hessle, Yorkshire.
In another clip, where she is fully clothed, she was spotted making faces at the camera.
Bontoft has now been found guilty of criminal damage by Beverley Magistrates.
She had previously denied the charge and claimed the trees were “overhanging her property“.
But she has now been slapped with a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £620 in CPS costs after being convicted.
Bontoft was found to have damaged six trees to the value of £210 between February 19 and March 6, 2021, at a hearing at Beverley Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
In a previous hearing, James Byatt, prosecuting, said the neighbour had CCTV footage that showed Bontoft reaching over the boundary and snapping off tree branches without lawful excuse.
Bontoft claimed she merely pushed “overhanging branches” back onto her neighbour’s property without breaking off any branches or touching her property.
CCTV footage has since shown Bontoft using a tool to damage the trees that separated their driveways.
The court determined her actions did not amount to simply pruning the trees.
The guilty verdict was welcomed by disgruntled neighbours, who say they have a strained relationship with Bontoft.
One neighbour said: “These are young trees and she is destroying them.
“She is just the neighbour from hell and it’s good to see her with a criminal record after her behaviour was caught on camera.
“If she causes any more misery in the next 12 months, she will get a harsher sentence, which reassures us that she will think twice before acting out again.”
According to another neighbour, the incident was part of the reason the owner of the trees moved away.
Due to the complainant moving out of her home and away from Bontoft no compensation was ordered, as the trees now belong to someone else.