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A Bassetlaw man who hurled foul-mouthed abuse at his next-door neighbour was ‘at the end of his tether’ following a long-standing dispute about their boundary fence, a court has heard.

Martyn Berry was cautioned by the police after calling his neighbour a ‘trespasser’ and a ‘vandal’ and warning him: “If you were 25 years younger I would flatten you,” on March 30.

Daniel Wilshaw, prosecuting at Mansfield Magistrates’ Court, said Berry’s neighbour was left feeling ‘seriously worried for himself and his wife’.

On May 19, Berry fired more abuse at his neighbours after playing loud music, shouting and swearing ‘you’re a pair of perverts’ and ‘it’s my fence’.

Berry, aged 51, of Orchard Lane, South Leverton, Retford, admitted threatening and abusive words to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

Ian Pridham, mitigating, said Berry, of previous good character, was ‘deeply ashamed’ by his outbursts, but had been ‘at the end of his tether’.

He said arbitrating disputes between neighbours was a ‘thankless task that rarely went anywhere until one of them moved’ and ‘that would appear to be the case here’.

The court heard an inital disagreement about the boundary between their properties ‘fizzled out’ and the neighbours got on well for eight years.

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However, tensions flared when Berry strengthened the fence to stop his neighbour’s dog getting through and they installed CCTV cameras overlooking his converted farmhouse.

Mr Pridham said: “They began to wear my client down. He felt everything he did in his back garden was watched.”

His neighbours demanded £1,400 compensation for the fence, even when it emerged they jointly owned it with Berry.

Mr Pridham said: “By that point he put the house on the market. He had had enough.”

On the night of the second incident, Berry was ‘not in the best mood’. He was due to attend his father's funeral the next day and his neighbours had shone torchlight into his bedroom.

“He went out and had an almighty rant,” said Mr Pridham.

Magistrates noted Berry’s remorse and said there had been an element of provocation. They decided a restraining order was not necessary as there have been no further incidents since May.

Berry was fined £1,083 and was ordered to pay a £108 surcharge and ££85 costs.

Bassetlaw man hurled abuse at neighbours in long-running feud over fence