A retired senior firefighter has been ordered to grow up after he deliberately set off his elderly neighbour’s Ring security cameras by yelling at night and calling them ‘weirdos’ in a bitter feud.
Andrew Hagan, 54, would use a torch to set off the devices up to four times each night, after becoming fed up with Erica Hogg’s cameras, who had lived next door to her in the Lache area of Chester for ten years.
In one incident Hagan shone a torch into one of the cameras, which covered 85 per cent of his drive, and accused Mrs Hogg, 70, of being ‘nosy’.
In another he said: ‘You still bloody filming are you, weirdos?’ and in a third sarcastically told the camera: ‘We have been Christmas shopping, is that okay? All three of us are back now.’
Other clips heard him saying: ‘Are you still invading my privacy and harassing me?’ and joking: ‘Just checking in!’
His actions were slammed at Chester Magistrates court where he was told bluntly: ‘You are an adult. You need to act like one.’
Andrew Hagan, 54, would use a torch to set off his elderly neighbours Ring doorbell devices up to four times each night
In one incident Hagan shone a torch into one of the cameras, which covered 85 per cent of his drive, and accused Erica Hogg, 70, of being ‘nosy’. Pictured: The house in the Lache area of Chester
Mrs Hogg, a retried sales manager called in police saying she was ‘alarmed’ by the ‘draining behaviour’ of her neighbour, who was a former watch manager with Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service.
She also accused him of ‘abuse’ due to his deliberate activation of the Ring detector and subsequent signals to her mobile phone which she said left her ‘exhausted’ at the end of every night.
Mrs Hogg further complained that Hagan had ‘loud bleeps’ on his BMW car whenever he locked and unlocked it causing her two sausage dogs to start barking at the window.
The father of two was later charged with harassing Mrs Hogg and her daughter Natasha with prosecutors claiming he ‘must have known’ his actions would cause distress.
At Chester magistrates court Hagan was cleared of both charges with JPs saying the feud was not a criminal matter but they criticised both him and Mrs Hogg for their failure to live peacefully side-by-side in their £450,000 detached properties.
The case arose out of incidents over a five week period between November and December last year after Hagan became increasingly frustrated with the prescence of Mrs Hogg’s four security devices.
He wrote to his neighbour in 2021 to complain about their installation even referencing the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
But she wrote to the ICO itself out of concern about Hagan’s own security cameras which she said gave him full view of the front of her property and a ‘complete visual’ of her back garden.
Mr Hagan is a former watch manager with Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service
She said her front camera only pointed over Hagan’s driveway because a pillar and an archway at the front of the property meant she had to position the device higher up the building to ‘properly protect her property.’
Mrs Hogg told the hearing: ‘At night time he comes out and the cameras pick him up. He stands on the driveway pointing at my house with his arm. He goes into the boot of his car and gets the torch out.
‘It’s a very powerful one and keeps shining it at my cameras, on and off. He could come out and do this up to four times a night. It’s just abuse.
‘He always says things like I’m either a pervert, a paedophile or a nonce. There is always the f-word in front of the other words. You are effing recording me again. It just becomes the norm. The camera can pick up what he is saying.
‘He had been doing this from November but the verbal abuse goes back to 2021. The torches that he shines at the camera, that is escalating.
‘He comes out and stands out there four times a night to do it. On one occasion he was sitting in his car and looking at my property. He was even doing it with his mobile phone torch as well.’
Footage played to the court showed Hagan triggering the doorbell camera calling his neighbours ‘f***ing perverts.’
In police interview Hagan claimed he was the ‘victim’ and said he felt ‘harassed and fearful’
Mrs Hogg added: ‘Well I suppose I could say if it happened just the once, but he ups his game every time it becomes more and more and more. When it comes to having him doing this four times every night it becomes draining.
‘The other things he does he has very loud bleeps to lock his car. ‘The beeping noise alerts my sausage dogs. I have a bay window and they will get on the window sill and bark at him because they know he is out there doing his usual bit.
‘But even if I am in the kitchen which is at the back of the house they will come into the kitchen to let me know something is going on in the front garden. ‘If I go out you can see him. I am disabled.
‘I do have healthy issues. I am recovering from another blood clot as we speak. I am not in a position where I can leg it to protect myself.
‘He should not have cameras at the top of his property looking into my backyard. I do not care about the front of the house as I think that it is good for protection but I do object to me being filmed at the back of my property in my garden.’
‘I do not think and feel that I should have to live like this on my own property. It is not pleasant and you are just wondering what he is going to do next. I should not have to live like this. It is like a game. I do not know what else you could call it.
‘Surely he has better things to do. I certainly do. It is exhausting. I go to bed and I am absolutely knackered. I do wake up regularly wondering what he is going to do next. It is just an ongoing thing.’
Hagan’s actions were slammed at Chester Magistrates court where he was told bluntly: ‘You are an adult. You need to act like one’
Her daughter said: ‘I feel threatened and intimidated, really uneasy and not very safe in my own house. He once very nearly hit my car with his vehicle. He did not have to go as close to my car as he did. He stopped and beeped.’
In police interview Hagan claimed he was the ‘victim’ and said he felt ‘harassed and fearful.’
He said the ‘constant video surveillance’ had impacted on his own mental health and added: ‘I tried to talk to her but I was met with anger.
‘She said: “Leave me alone and get away.” Now every time I leave the house or come home the camera goes on. Every time the camera goes on I can hear it.
‘I only shone the torch into the camera to show my disapproval. It was my way of telling them: “Leave me alone”.’
Hagan’s lawyer Mr Adam Antoszkiw said: ‘Mr Hagan knows that he does not carry himself in the greatest of lights but his behaviour is merely born out of frustration. He can clearly see himself being filmed every time he goes on and off his driveway.
‘I concede that Mrs Hogg may have a measure of upset, certainly some of the language that is unattractive, but it is not oppressive.’
In clearing Hagan, Chairman of the magistrates Ian Knight said: ‘On both sides of this debate there are problems and both sides of this case sit within the unreasonable behaviour category in our view.
‘Both parties in this case should seek professional assistance to privacy. Redirect your cameras and your neighbours’ cameras onto their own property as far as reasonably practicable.
‘Both parties should refrain from making comments to the cameras or to the occupiers.’
He told Hagan: ‘You need to reflect on your own conduct. What we have seen today is not acceptable. You are an adult. You need to act like one.
‘You need to improve. You also need to learn to live with there being cameras in society, so do your neighbours. You should not be in court, either of you. This is not a criminal case.’
The JPs refused a request to impose a restraining order.
After the case Mrs Hogg said: ‘Nobody asked me why we had to put up the CCTV in the first place.
‘It was just obvious to me why we have had to go to all that trouble of putting CCTV when police advised us to do so. We have had harassment on and off for eight years.’
