A STALKER breached a court order by letting the battery run out on an electronic monitoring tag only a month after being sentenced.

Chris Allen, 70, was sentenced in August after he admitted one charge of stalking involving fear, alarm, or distress.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard the pensioner had pursued his victim by turning up at her place of work in Halstead and approached his victim’s colleagues “trying to extract information about her”.

Judge Chris Morgan sentenced Allen, of The Walk in Eight Ash Green, to an 18-month jail term suspended for two years and ordered him to wear GPS trail monitoring tag.

He told him: “If there is any breach, then the first breach comes to the crown court.

“Any breach is reserved to myself.

“Unless there is an explanation on your behalf, a breach is going to result in your immediate incarceration.

“This, in the circumstances, is your one and only chance.”

However, Allen reappeared before Judge Morgan on Monday to admit a breach of order which involved him failing to charge his electronic monitoring equipment.

Allen was fined £250 for the breach and ordered to pay £60 in costs.