An estate agent was sentenced to two months in jail after admitting criminal damage in the home of another estate agent, his former girlfriend.
Timothy Neal, of Plymouth, Devon, took revenge on his ex-partner by dousing her bed with diesel and pouring bleach into her underwear drawer.
Exeter Crown Court heard that Neal was distraught after his 16-year relationship with Nicola Davey broke up.
On learning that she was seeing someone else, he used a key to access her home.
Neal was also ordered to pay £2,000 compensation and served with a restraining order banning him from going to the house, in Paignton, or to the estate agency where Miss Davey works and where he also used to work.
Miss Davey made a victim impact statement, saying she felt vulnerable in her own home.
Because Neal had already served 98 days on remand or curfew, he was released immediately.
Comments (3)
Well… the relevance may be tenuous, but, in order to let licenseable property (if this agent also a letting agent) he must be ‘a fit and proper person’. With a criminal conviction – particularly one related to property – wrongfully entry and damage, this agent might now have difficulty passing this test.
You are of course absolutely correct, ‘NewsBoy’ – the ‘story’ wouldn’t have made a single publication if it was two people in virtually any other profession.
But this highlights perfectly what we are up against with our ‘friends’ in Fleet Street, who seem to be looking any which way they can to demonise the profession.
Ros is doing us a service by alerting us to what is being said behind our backs, for whatever purpose.
This might be a story about an everyday squabble between two people but not really relevant to estate agency. The fact that they just both happened to be estate agents isn’t really that interesting!