WANNABE rocker Darren Madigan was more zero than hero when he annoyed his neighbours while trying to emulate rock stars.
The 27-year-old’s loud playing using the interactive Guitar Hero on a games console sent his neighbour up the wall by blasting through her wall and drowning out her TV, Huddersfield magistrates heard yesterday.
It is thought to be the first court action in the country taken over the noise from a games console.
Fed-up Anna Gibbons had first complained to Madigan almost two years ago about playing his CDs far too loud at his home on Prospect Road in Longwood.
But that fell on deaf ears, so she turned to Kirklees Environmental Health Officers who acted by serving Madigan with a Noise Abatement Notice in April, 2007.
He breached it less than a month later and was given a formal caution after Madigan’s playing Relax by 80s band Frankie Goes To Hollywood left Miss Gibbons feeling anything but relaxed.
Yet things took a turn for the worse for Miss Gibbons when Madigan treated himself to the Guitar Hero game now being advertised widely on TV.
He would spend hours playing the guitar at the back-to-back terraced home where he lived alone – often on teatimes and Friday evenings.
Once again Miss Gibbons complained after the unwanted gigs from next door meant she was unable to hear her own TV.
In exasperation she phoned Kirklees Environmental Health department on the evening of December 14 last year and senior technical officer Michael Pogson went straight round, sat in her lounge and listened to the racket from next door for the best part of two hours.
He told the court: “It was guitar-based rock music that sounded like a backing track with someone trying to play lead guitar on top of it.
“It was not like the real record – it was like someone playing along badly. It never stopped for more than a minute and then would go on for another five minutes.’’
Songs to get the special Madigan guitar treatment included Welcome To The Jungle by Guns ’N’ Roses, Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones and Spirit In The Sky by Dr And The Medics.
Environmental Health officers use their subjective judgement to decide if domestic noise is too loud – often one test is if the complainant can hear their own TV above it – and Mr Pogson decided that Madigan’s noise levels meant he had breached his Abatement Notice.
He knocked on Madigan’s door that night – and Madigan answered it with the little plastic guitar hanging around his neck.
Prosecutor Geoff Bell told the magistrates that Environmental Health officers always try to mediate at first when they receive complaints about noise nuisance and that often works.
Only when that fails is an Abatement Notice served.
He added: “The noise was such with Guitar Hero that the tunes could be identified through the wall and that’s something significant to bear in mind.’’
Environmental Health officer Lisa Shaw said several letters had been sent to Madigan to try to sort the problem out and he had been invited by council officers for a meeting after he breached the Abatement Notice – but he cancelled the visit and wrote back stating he felt his music was not too loud.
Miss Gibbons told the court the problems first started in late August 2006 and she only complained to Kirklees Council after an appeal to Madigan to turn his music down failed.
She then kept a list of the dates, times and CD tracks that he played.
Madigan defended himself and claimed the noise was amplified on December 14 because his window was open and even though he lived in a terraced back-to-back, only one neighbour had complained.
He was convicted of breaching the Abatement Notice by the magistrates after a short trial.
Kirklees applied for court costs totalling £716.95.
The magistrates ordered that he should pay £350 in costs along with a £270 fine and a £15 Victim Surcharge.
Madigan said he would pay the £635 total off at the rate of £80 a month.
The magistrates did not order that his games console and Guitar Hero game be destroyed after hearing that Madigan had moved from Prospect Road to Town End Lane in Lepton.
Miss Gibbons said afterwards: “I’m just glad he’s gone and I’ve got my peace back.’’
