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Landlord fined for harassing foreign tenants
The elderly landlord who harassed the American tenants of a house she owned in East Anglia has been fined £2,000 and told to contribute £2,500 in costs.
The Bury Free Press reports that Rosemary Hill, 74, of Mildenhall, denied harassment but was found guilty nonetheless. She was cleared of an alternative offence of racially aggravated harassment.
The newspaper says the court heard how the family who moved into a property owned by Hill was “bombarded with increasingly ‘vitriolic and personal’ comments in emails and phone calls from Hill between October 2012 and June 2013.”
Hill did not give evidence herself during the trial, nor did she call witnesses.
Mr Recorder David Pugh, sitting at Norwich Crown Court, told Hill she must pay a £2,000 fine and contribute £2,500 towards the cost of the prosecution. Hill was also given a restraining order which will remain in force for 10 years and prohibits her from engaging in further harassment.
During the trial the prosecution said Hill may have been trying to hound the couple and their four children out of the property because she had other potential tenants willing to pay a higher rent.
Terri and Dwayne Scott, both US citizens, are reported to have told the country that within a short time of moving into the house, they asked for defects with the property to be fixed.
Mrs Scott said that as correspondence between them progressed, Hill’s tone became increasingly terse, personal and offensive. Hill had accused the family of failing to look after her property, she said.
The Bury Free Press says Sergeant Dwayne Scott, who works as an aircraft repairer at RAF Mildenhall, told the jury that telephone calls from Hill became almost daily – sometimes several times a day – and included calls she made to his immediate senior officer at RAF Mildenhall to discuss what she said were problems with the tenancy.
