Noise abatement neighbour

A MAN broke into his neighbour's house and stole everything he could that made noise.

Malachy Brown, 47, was fed up with the constant racket since Robert McIlvanney had moved into the same block of flats.

Weary from nights of late parties and damage to the common stairwell, he took the law into his own hands. Together with his 22-year-old friend Ian Weatherston, he decided to break into Mr McIlvanney's flat and remove the items that he felt were felt were responsible for the late-night noise.

Their £300 haul on 11 December last year included a PlayStation 2 game, a PlayStation, a CD player and a number of CDs featuring karaoke music. Brown used a claw-hammer to smash a corner of the window of McIlvanney's home in Muthag Street, Selkirk.

The procurator-fiscal, Graham Fraser, told Selkirk Sheriff Court there had been a long-running dispute between Brown and his neighbour over damage to the common-stair door.

Mark Harrower, the defence lawyer, said his client was angry after the door had been broken again and a group of youths who had visited his neighbour's house ran off.

Mr Harrower added: "He was annoyed and took everything that was capable of making a noise, including the karaoke music which he had to listen to. He just wanted some peace."

Brown was assisted in the raid by Weatherston, from Selkirk, who had sympathised with the plight of his friend and the noise he was being subjected to.

Sheriff Kevin Drummond told the accused: "If this was a house break-in for commercial gain you both would have been going to prison. It was not.

"But it was a wholly inappropriate way of dealing with the problem," the sheriff added.