A warning has gone out to residents in Nottingham after a woman was forced to pay more than £2,300 for persistently making too much noise at her St Ann’s home.
Tara Street, 25, of Palmerston Gardens, was convicted in her absence at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court, fined £400 and ordered to pay costs of £1,936 after five offences of contravening a noise abatement notice.
Community Protection’s pollution control team originally served the notice on Street on April 17 last year but continued to receive complaints from neighbours. Audio recording equipment was installed to gather evidence the following month and again in August.
Officers from the authority applied for a warrant from the court on both occasions and were given permission to enter the property with bailiffs to seize equipment which was causing the loud noise.
On May 22 they collected a hi-fi and speakers, an iPod and speaker cable, two televisions and a DVD player. They returned on August 20 to seize two more televisions, another DVD player, a tablet device, games console, and gaming chair with speakers.
At the magistrates hearing on December 31, the court also granted the council’s pollution control team a forfeiture order, which means that the seized equipment is now the property of the authority and will not be returned to Street.
Councillor Dave Liversidge, Portfolio Holder for Community Safety, Housing and Voluntary Sector at Nottingham City Council, said: “We welcome this conviction and hope that it deters other people from this type of anti social behaviour, which makes life a misery for their neighbours.
“Persistent loud noise, in whatever form, coming from a property can be really debilitating, especially for the elderly, those with young children or who work shifts or irregular hours. In this case, we stepped in as soon as we were made aware but Ms Street refused to comply with the abatement notice and unfortunately the matter ended up at court.
“It sends out a strong message that anti-social behaviour of this nature will not be tolerated and we will pursue those people who show such blatant disregard for their neighbours and wider community.”