Man used detergent to kill neighbour’s fish after pond noise drove him ‘completely insane’

A pensioner used motor oil and detergent to kill his neighbour’s fish out of ‘sheer frustration and lack of sleep’ because of his noisy pond, a court has heard.

Gerry Duffy, 76, was ‘driven completely insane’ by the sound of a water pump running his neighbour’s fishpond in Barnet, north London.

He pleaded guilty on the day of his trial at Willesden Magistrates’ Court to damaging the pond, fish, water pump and pipes in March.

The court heard he had warned his neighbour, Andreas Ptohides, that he would take matters into his own hands if he did not do something about the noise.

Shahid Iftakhar, prosecuting, told the court the ‘neighbour dispute’ had killed ‘five or six’ of Mr Ptohides’s Koi carp, and potentially caused £565 of damage.

He said: ‘The defendant has previously complained to the complainant about noise coming from his garden and has said words to the effect of, ‘if you didn’t deal with it, I would’ – there was a warning before the incident.’

The prosecution added that Duffy was captured on CCTV having ‘climbed into the complainant’s garden and damaged the water pipes and pumps’.

In mitigation, Elliott Stern told the court his client had tried to deal with the dispute without resorting to killing the fish.

Mr Stern said: ‘The man has been driven completely insane by this noise, he’s spoken to the complainant several times.

‘They initially said they would stop the water pump going but then turned around and said that’s not good for the fish.’

Duffy, who worked as a builder before his retirement, lives in a studio flat which backs onto the garden owned by his neighbour, the court heard.

An environmental officer came to the house and told Duffy he either had to ‘move or close his window’, the court heard.

‘Out of sheer frustration and lack of sleep, Mr Duffy, out of character, I would say, lost his mind and committed various damages,’ said Mr Stern.

Duffy, who pleaded guilty to three counts of damaging property and one count of unlawfully destroying fish, was handed a two-year conditional discharge.

He was also ordered to pay £565 of compensation to Mr Ptohides.

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