A neighbourly dispute landed a man in court after he allegedly threw planks of wood into next door’s garden.
Ben Taylor was initially charged with hurling the wood over an eight-foot wall “at risk of injury” to a woman sitting in the garden, but that charge was dropped after he gave his version of events.
The 32-year-old told how things had escalated after a weeks-long battle which saw him and his neighbour “pushing planks of wood” between the Springfield Road properties in Elgin.
After his neighbour was said to have damaged Taylor’s summerhouse he became “annoyed” and decided to return the wood over the fence.
Fiscal depute Karen Poke told Elgin Sheriff Court said the incident happened at around 7.30pm on June 4 last year while the complainer was sitting in her back garden with a friend.
Court swayed by his explanation
“She heard a loud bang and saw the two six-foot planks land in her garden near where she sat,” Ms Poke said.
“She saw the accused standing on the roof of a shed and challenged him before he began shouting and swearing at her.”
She said police traced Taylor a week later but he refused to cooperate.
This, Taylor explained to the court, was because he was “upset about the situation” and also that he was the one being arrested despite him calling the police on his neighbour too.
“The day I realised he had damaged the guttering and drainpipes on the summerhouse I’d built I went round,” he added.
“I didn’t throw the planks – I pushed them. I was not being aggressive to her I was asking where her husband was.
“There was obviously a few words said but nothing that was out of line. I was annoyed about the damage to my property.
“I just keep myself to myself now.”
Told to ‘stay out of trouble’
Sheriff Olga Pasportnikov told Taylor she couldn’t accept a “plea of convenience” after he said he just wanted to “get things over with”.
However, upon hearing his explanation, the Crown dropped the culpable and reckless conduct charge and asked Taylor to be sentenced purely for his threatening or abusive behaviour.
Sheriff Pasportnikov ordered Taylor, of Muirfield Road, Elgin, to be of good behaviour for six months and deferred sentencing until November.
“If you can stay out of trouble for that time it’s likely you will be receiving an admonition by the court,” she told him.
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