A former teacher mounted a campaign of harassment against her neighbour as “revenge” after she was evicted from her beach hut over playing loud music, a court has heard.

Michele Spicer, 60, had paid £15,000 for her beach hut in Goring-by-Sea, in West Sussex, following her divorce in 2020, a place she termed her “mermaid haven”, but she was evicted in 2021.

Rows escalated after her neighbour accused her of playing loud music on her Mercedes radio near the huts.

Spicer became convinced that one neighbour was plotting to evict her, a court heard. When the hut was taken away from her by the council, she launched a campaign of “revenge” against the neighbour which became so severe that the victim was forced to leave town and even change her job.

London’s High Court heard that her behaviour led to an anti-harassment injunction but that Spicer “continued to harass and intimidate” the former neighbour.

Judge Richard Pearce found her in contempt of court for breaching the injunction and gave Spicer a 24-week jail sentence suspended for two years, as well as having to pay her former neighbour’s legal costs, estimated at £53,000.