A campsite owner has been sentenced after he disarmed two bird scarer devices he claimed were pointed at his site to intentionally disturb his guests.

Nigel Marsh, who runs a glamping site in Edgefield in Norfolk, removed parts of the devices to stop them from making a noise in August 2024.

He has admitted criminal damage, although a charge of theft, which he denied, was dropped before it was due to to come to trial this week at Norwich Crown Court.

At the same court, he has been given a four-year restraining order preventing him from contacting his neighbours who had the scarers on their farmland.

Marsh began leasing at Dam Hill Plantation in 2023, and became embroiled in a dispute with the neighbouring landowner Stuart Ross and Ross's gamekeeper Robert Chambers, the court heard.

His company, My Mini Break, runs sites elsewhere in Norfolk, including at Heacham.

The court heard he had tried raising complaints about the bird scarers with the police and North Norfolk District Council.

However, before anything could be resolved through official channels, he took "the law into his own hands", prosecutor Oliver Hasswell said.

The court heard Marsh was caught on camera removing gas canisters from the bird scarers. He also found a note stuck to one of them, directed at him, which included a swearword and the words "smile... I will be meeting you soon".

When police came to arrest him, he produced the items and denied theft, claiming he removed them in the hope he could return them to the owner to discuss the problems they were causing.

His defence barrister, Dingle Clark, said Marsh was "exasperated... at the end of his tether" and the bird scarers were disrupting his campers, who then left negative reviews online.

The court heard Marsh believed the dispute stemmed from frustration that he had been awarded the lease for the site instead of his neighbours.

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Recorder Ruth Brander imposed a four-year restraining order preventing Marsh from contacting directly or indirectly Chambers and Ross, from attending their address, or entering their land.

She said the order was necessary to prevent "further harassment".

However, Brander added it did not prevent the campsite owner from pursuing legitimate complaints against the trio through the council or police.

He was also ordered to pay £300 court costs and a £26 victim surcharge.

The Crown Prosecution Service dropped the theft charge after Marsh admitted criminal damage.

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