A businessman in Essex has been handed an 18-week jail term suspended for 18 months, a five-year restraining order and a five-year criminal behaviour order after a court found he conducted a two-year campaign of harassment and criminal damage against the couple next door.
Peter Rushton, 43, who runs a family-founded plant services business, was convicted in his absence at Chelmsford Magistrates Court in June of criminal damage, causing harassment without violence and failing to comply with a community protection order. He later had the criminal behaviour order added at Southend Magistrates Court following a police application.
Prosecutors said the dispute began in 2022 after a landowner cleared rubbish from a field behind the homes and Rushton, who operates a workshop adjacent to the field, believed his neighbours had dumped it there. The neighbours said Rushton helped clear the mess and subsequently sent them an invoice for £3,500, which the farmer told them to ignore. The couple, who had lived at the address in Southminster for about 20 years, say the alleged harassment intensified after they sought advice from Citizens Advice and the farmer declined to enforce the invoice.
Court and police accounts say the harassment escalated over the following two years and included throwing glass at the neighbours' detached house, smashing roof tiles, damaging an aviary that contained about 20 lovebirds, and repeatedly setting off alarms and directing home CCTV cameras to monitor the couple as they arrived home. The victims told officers they were the subject of anonymous correspondence to Maldon District Council in which the husband was falsely accused of child sexual offences; forensic testing on that letter reportedly matched Rushton’s fingerprints.
The woman, 49, told police the pressure affected her 63-year-old husband’s health and that the pair temporarily moved into a static caravan because they felt unsafe. They said they only returned to their house about three weeks ago. A friend of the couple said the husband had been prescribed medication as a result of the distress.
Rushton denied the charges but was found guilty after failing to attend the hearing. In June, magistrates imposed the suspended custodial term, a £650 fine, and a five-year restraining order. Southend Magistrates Court later granted a five-year criminal behaviour order that imposes a series of prohibitions, including bans on damaging the victims’ property, sending them correspondence, throwing objects into their garden, spraying water or other substances at their property or vehicles, harassing or intimidating anyone connected with the household and using abusive or threatening language in the neighbourhood.
Investigating officer PC Luke Jones, who worked on the case with Maldon District Council, said the conduct represented an escalation of a neighbourhood dispute. He said officers and council partners had enforced previous community protection warnings and notices and had managed noise complaints alongside policing activity. "Rushton conducted a sustained campaign of abuse and harassment against the couple over two years, breaching a Community Protection Warning and a Community Protection Notice as he did so, which caused them acute distress," Jones said. He added that the case showed agencies would work together to pursue long-term solutions to anti-social behaviour.
The court documents and police summary say breaches of either the restraining order or the criminal behaviour order could lead to imprisonment or further fines. Rushton declined to comment when approached. A friend of his said the matter should never have reached police and described it as "just over a pile of rubbish outside his workshop."
The neighbours said they had at one point considered selling their home but had decided to remain. They said the ordeal had been "absolutely horrendous" and expressed concern about the prospect of remaining next door while the orders are in force. The case underscores the potential for property and boundary disputes in semi-rural communities to escalate into prolonged legal and criminal proceedings when allegations of harassment and damage are involved.