A man has been ordered to pay the police £1,100 compensation after he removed a digital intruder alarm they had installed at his former girlfriend's house.

Carmine Rizzo, 24, of St Helen's Road, Westcliff, admitted breaking into the house he used to share with his girlfriend and dismantling the alarm before throwing it away.

Magistrates had issued a restraining order against Rizzo, prohibiting him from contacting his former girlfriend, after he pleaded guilty to harassing her over a period of nine days in September.

Prosecutor George Duah told the court that Rizzo's relationship with his girlfriend had ended two months before the offences took place and he had moved out of the home they shared.

Rizzo's girlfriend reported six break-ins to the police who then fitted the house with a digital intruder alarm valued at £1,100, magistrates heard.

The girlfriend went to stay with a friend and, while she was there, heard banging on the window and saw Rizzo outside.

She called the police who warned him about his behaviour.

However, he returned and broke the front window of the house, Mr Duah said.

The police were called out to Rizzo's former girlfriend's house after the intruder alarm was activated and found the house had been forcibly entered and the alarm had disappeared, the court was told.

Simon Samuels, in mitigation, said Rizzo was described as a hard working man by his employers, who accepted the relationship was now at an end and wanted to put the case behind him.

Magistrates ordered Rizzo to pay £264.37 in compensation to his former girlfriend's friend for the damage to her property and £55 costs.

Published Monday November 4, 2002

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