A woman has vented her anger on TikTok after Openreach workers dug a 15ft trench across her lawn – to lay a broadband cable for her neighbour.

Melanie Abbott, who is 48, came home from work to find a digger had been in her garden without her knowledge.

There were piles of mud where the long hole had been filled in and grass seeds sprinkled on top.

Melanie checked her CCTV camera and realised it had been a full-scale job - then filmed herself for TikTok confronting the neighbour and threatening to take legal action.

placeholder image — Melanie Abbott was furious

The video, which has already gained more than 900,000 views, can be seen here.

The neighbour who ordered the internet cables to be fitted has told the BBC she had no idea the disruption was going to happen. She said she was expecting a narrow trench to be dug by hand within her boundary - not a large one on Melanie’s lawn.

Meanwhile Melanie is not appeased and says she is meeting with a lawyer is discuss legal action.

Openreach is replacing copper cables with full fibre connections in MK. Their spokesperson said: “Our engineers generally need permission to dig when crossing private property and would have to apply for a wayleave – a legal agreement between us and the landowner – to cross or dig on land that belongs to someone else to provide service to a third party.”

They added: “We're currently investigating to check whether all the rules were followed in this case.”