A weightlifter has been fined £70 for exercising too loudly. Giran Jobe, 36, was charged with 47 breaches of a noise abatement order after neighbours complained that his two-hour training sessions with dumbbells left them unable to sleep.
A council team investigating complaints about noise from his top-floor flat in Margate, Kent, found that at times the level hit 100 decibels - as loud as a rock concert. The 6ft 2in, 210lb carpenter was warned by officials last summer to stop using his weights. But after just one month neighbours again complained to Thanet council, which fitted flats on lower floors with noise recorders.
In the following six months neighbours recorded 47 breaches of the noise abatement order - citing "grunting and noise from the weights hitting the floor" as the major irritants.
Doris Fox, 68, said she was so fed up with the grunting, and screaming and the noise of weights being slammed down that she couldn't sleep properly.
She told Thanet magistrates court: "The noise was so loud that I thought that he had an angle grinder up there."
Town hall chiefs even applied for an Asbo to ban Jobe from exercising but the application was thrown out by the court.
Shirley Tomlinson, Thanet council's environment chief, said: "We always try to sort out the problem informally if we can, but if this doesn't work we can take legal action to solve the issue."
Jobe admitted the 47 breaches but, speaking after his court appearance this week, he said: "I don't play loud music, I don't have parties and I don't stamp around. All I do is exercise and work out with my weights. I am trying to keep fit. I cannot believe I got taken to court for exercising."
One of his neighbours said the noise had been "unbearable" and added: "I hope he keeps his promise and sticks to push-ups from now on."
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