Husband fined for emailing ex about gas meter
A BUSINESSMAN who sent his estranged wife emails about meter readings and car insurance during an acrimonious divorce has been convicted under anti-stalking laws.
Despairing at legal bills in excess of £200,000, Matthew Eckersley, 45, said he messaged his former partner Zoe directly about mundane matters – despite being told all contact should be through their £300-an-hour lawyers.
One note relating to maintenance payments read: ‘Hi Zoe, apologies for this, I’ve just seen it and have made payments. Thanks, Matthew.’ A second said: ‘Hello Zoe, your car has been insured with Esure – I will send it over on receipt.’ A third added: ‘Please can you take a picture of gas and electric meters and email them over?’
But Mrs Eckersley, 44, called police, telling a court that while Eckersley hadn’t threatened her with violence she had felt ‘physically sick’ at being ‘bombarded with emails’.
The mother- of-two, who is dating another man, said: ‘I have not blown this out of proportion. It’s not that they said “I’m coming to shoot you” – but every time I saw his message it would really shake me up. Just seeing his name was enough.’
A court heard Eckersley had hired a private investigator to stake out their £600,000 family home in Knutsford, Cheshire, to record when his estranged wife came and left, although he insisted this had been suggested by his lawyers.
Eckersley, who is managing
‘Worried me immensely’
director of a property investment company, was found guilty of harassment without violence following a trial at Stockport Magistrates’ Court and ordered to pay £1,445 – including £100 compensation to his wife.
The couple married in 2005 but split up in 2015. Giving evidence behind screens, Mrs Eckersley – who attended the hearing with her partner John Wilson, 59 – said her solicitors told Eckersley last year he should contact her only via his legal team.
But she told the court: ‘By the end of September there were so many emails relating to things like meter readings, maintenance and my partner, it made me feel like I was being watched. One quoted when I left the house and how long for – it was like I had an electronic tag on me and he knew when I left.’
Mrs Eckersley insisted she wasn’t being paranoid and that having a private detective outside her home ‘ worried me immensely’. Eckersley denied wrongdoing and said he had never been aggressive.
‘My understanding was that anything relating to the divorce should go through the lawyers – but on mundane things I couldn’t really understand how I could create myself or Zoe another bill of £300 to go back and forth between the lawyers,’ he said. ‘We are going to go well over £200,000 because of ridiculous things that keep happening and I just can’t afford it.
‘There’s no need to go to the solicitor to get a meter reading for gas or electric.
‘Even with the car insurance, it’s a ludicrous and silly thing to have to go through lawyers. It’s not affordable. It’s going to ruin us, it’s very upsetting and it’s costing a fortune.’
On hiring a detective, he said his solicitor had suggested it to prove Mrs Eckersley was living with someone else.
But magistrate Pauline McArdle told him: ‘We found Mrs Eckersley’s evidence credible and consistent and found yourself to be unconvincing. You ought to have known that your contact amounted to the harassment of Mrs Eckersley.’
Eckersley was fined £750 and was ordered to pay costs and surcharges of £695. He was also banned from contacting his wife for 18 months under the terms of a restraining order.