Cop’s career in ruins after he steals £16.99 windchimes in neighbour feud
A POLICEMAN faces losing his job after a dispute with his neighbour over a £16.99 wind chime led to a criminal trial costing thousands of pounds.
Sergeant Paul Duke, whose partner is a detective, was caught on CCTV climbing his neighbours’ fence, stealing the chime and putting it on a bonfire in his garden.
Edmund Looby, 42, and his teacher wife Tatiana, 39, had previously complained to the council about fires Duke had been lighting to burn rubbish.
When the Loobys reported the theft to police, Duke, 45, told officers the chime belonged to him.
The row resulted in a trial at Doncaster magistrates’ court involving two barristers, eight witnesses and a district judge.
Father-of-two Mr Looby, a construction worker who has since moved to
Criminal damage
Kuwait, had the £1,000 cost of travel to the UK to give evidence paid from the public purse. The total cost of the case is estimated at £3,000 – with more than half paid by the taxpayer.
Duke was found guilty of criminal damage by District Judge Jonathan Bennett, who rejected the policeman’s account that he was reclaiming his own property.
Mr Bennett described Duke’s actions as ‘ extremely strange behaviour’ and a ‘foolish escapade’. The sergeant was given a conditional discharge, ordered to pay £620 costs and £16.99 compensation. After 26 years in the force Duke faces losing his job.
He moved to the house in Barnsley in 2012 with Detective Constable Eleanor Bottomley and their two sons, the court heard. The Loobys had lived next door for seven years but were dismayed when Duke burned doors, cupboards, carpets and plastic in his back garden.
The council advised them to keep a log of all fires and they monitored activities via a security camera. In March they checked the CCTV footage, which was played in court. It shows Duke clambering over the 6ft fence, taking the chime and throwing it on a bonfire.
Duke told the court he had put a chime in his garden when he moved in. While off work, he realised ‘ the wind chime had gone’ and saw one in the Loobys’ garden. ‘I recognised it straight away as our old rusty metal wind chime,’ he said. But Mr Looby produced a receipt to prove he had bought the chime three years earlier.
Duke said: ‘In hindsight I might have dealt with it differently but at the time it seemed a reasonable thing to do … I had reached a tipping point.’ Miss Bottomley said they had decided to get rid of their chime due to rust.
Mr Bennett said: ‘Sometimes I wondered today what we were all doing here at an overburdened court to deal with … a neighbour dispute over a £16.99 wind chime.’
After the case Mr Looby said: ‘It is an absolute waste of taxpayers’ money. But justice has been done.’
South Yorkshire Police is to carry out a misconduct investigation to decide Duke’s future.