Woman smashed up DVD player, speakers to stop confiscation

A WOMAN smashed up her own DVD player and speakers to stop them being confiscated by police after making her neighbours’ lives a misery by playing repeated ear-splitting music during lockdown.

Officials went to court to get an order to stop the tenant playing loud music during the day, at night and into the early hours.

The woman, who lives in Princess Road East, pictured, near New Walk in Leicester, had started ramping up the volume with her windows open in March, during the first national lockdown, but ignored informal warnings to stop at first, then formal warnings after that.

That prompted noise control officers at Leicester City Council to ask magistrates to grant an order to remove the music-playing equipment.

Ahead of the second national lockdown, that started on Thursday, Police and council officers carried out the seizure on Monday. But rather than give up her DVD player and Bluetooth speaker, the woman destroyed them.

Leicester City Council’s noise and pollution control team manager Annette Bryan said: “Officers tried to deal with this matter informally but the tenant did not respond to any of the documents she was sent and the noise issue escalated.

“The seizure of her equipment was therefore deemed necessary as the complainants were unable to escape the noise.

“People can pay to retrieve their seized equipment after a month.

“But in this instance the tenant destroyed it before allowing us to confiscate it.

“However, any further reports of noise nuisance could mean more noise equipment has to be removed from the flat.’’

Assistant city mayor for neighbourhoods Councillor Kirk Master said: “No one should have to put up with a noise nuisance like this, especially during lockdown, when people were spending more time than ever at home.

“We take enforcement action only when other means of resolving the problem have failed. In this instance, the tenant ignored our earlier attempts to deal with the problem.”