Milton Keynes man fined £900 for noisey dog

MK magistrates heard today how a barking dog caused problems for residents in Victoria Street, Wolverton for nearly two years.

As a result the owner, Khalil Ur Rehman, appeared in court to admit nuisance dog barking in breach of S.80 Statutory Nuisance Abatement Notice, under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

He was fined £100 and ordered to pay £800 prosecution costs – and the court heard that the dog has since been rehomed.

The court heard that the first complaint happened on August 28, 2014 and shortly afterwards the council’s environmental health department wrote to Mr Rehman - but received no reply.

On September 16, 2014 the council received another complaint and agreed to install noise monitoring equipment in the aggrieved neighbours’ home.

This confirmed there was a statutory nuisance being caused by the barking and still the noise continued.

Further correspondence continued, most of it being ignored, and an officer visited the area to check the noise levels in person – and on November 4, 2014 the council issued Mr Rehman with a Statutory Noise Nuisance Abatement notice.

The problems continued and it was apparent that no-one was trying to keep the dog quiet.

There was also an allegation that the dog had leapt at the neighbour’s fence, damaging it.

The barking continued well into this year – noise monitoring equipment was installed again and the council decided it had no option but to prosecute for breaching the noise abatement notice.

A council enforcement spokesperson, said: “Our evidence showed that there was clearly little effort made to control this dog and the owner ignored numerous warnings from ourselves to take responsibility.

“People have a right to not be exposed to statutory noise nuisance.”