An OAP neighbour-from-hell was found guilty of criminal damage after she ripped up a homeowner’s flowers in a bizarre midnight attack – over a squirrel.
Spinster Marian Webster, 78, has tormented her neighbours for over a decade and has been reported to police at least 40 times for anti-social behaviour.
Webster, who lives alone in a £154,000 two-bedroom semi-detached bungalow in Eastbury Drive, Olton, Solihull, West Mids., also verbally abused her neighbours with foul-mouthed tirades.
She was hauled before Solihull Magistrates Court where she was found guilty of criminal damage last October for tearing up £50 worth of plants from her neighbour’s flowerbeds.
On Tuesday JPs ordered Webster to keep the peace for six months and warned she would be fined £50 if she continued to torment her neighbours.
Kaya Ball, prosecuting, said police had been called to the pensioner’s home numerous times over the past 11 years.
She said: “This isn’t just an isolated incident of cutting some flowers.
“On the face of it, it seems trivial, but when it is presented as part of a long-standing neighbour dispute you can see there are several incidents.”
But Sam Christopher, defending, said she was an elderly lady of “previous good character.”
It is understood from residents living nearby that she used a pair of secateurs to cut her neighbour’s flowers after becoming convinced he had trained a squirrel to enter her garden.
Bizarrely, in an attempt to hide her crimes, she also dialled 999 claiming her flowerbeds had also been wrecked.
Neighbours in the leafy suburb branded Webster “a neigbour from hell” and expressed anger at her lenient sentence.
One said: “She is the worst person to live near or especially next to.
“She is very proud of her garden and she got it into her head that someone had it in for her and was jealous of her flowers.
“She put up a big metal gate, extended the height of her fences and made the place into a fortress.
“Then she became convinced a resident, I think it was her neighbour, had trained a squirrel to enter her garden after dark and tear up her flowers but everyone thought it was a joke.
“One night she went mad and cut someone’s flowers up and tore up plants from the roots.
“It was mad stuff really but caused a lot of hassle and heartache for the person involved.
“The last thing you expect to have when you move into a nice quiet neighbourhood like this one is an elderly woman acting like a yob. Just because she’s old doesn’t mean she’s nice.”
Another neighbour claimed her grandchildren were “too scared” to play in the back garden because Webster regularly shouted obscenities at them, calling them “b*stards and bitches”.
Another reported her to police for playing loud classical music at 3am while another said she had even tried to shove an elderly man off a ladder while he repaired his guttering.
One claimed: “We’re scared to go outside of the house or in the garden because we know we’ll have abuse shouted at us.
“Her language is terrible¬ she screams ‘b****’ at people and just calls them names.
“It’s really not good when there are children living and playing around here.
“Lots of people around here have had to call the police. People have had problems with her for years.
“On one occasion a neighbour was up a ladder fixing his guttering which had blown down and she tried to make him fall down by ramming it with her shopping basket.
“She is a recluse and plays loud classical music night after night.
“She seems to enjoy causing a fuss and making everyone’s life hell.”
West Midlands Police confirmed they had been contacted more than 40 times since 2002 about alleged incidents including claims from Webster herself that she was a victim of flower vandals.
A spokeswoman said: “The force has been working in partnership with a vulnerable persons officer, social services and Solihull Community Housing to engage with everybody concerned and to resolve the problems in the area.
“There have been no complaints since October 2012.”
