'Spiteful' sister who cancelled brother's wedding because she disliked his fiance is jailed

A ‘spiteful’ sister-in-law who cancelled her brother’s wedding because she didn’t like his young fiancé has been jailed for eight weeks.

Ann Duffy wanted to stop sibling David Greatrex, 52, tying the knot with girlfriend Sandra Hardy, 28.

She rang a registry office pretending to be her future sister-in-law and told officials to scrap plans for their wedding.

Duffy then rang her big brother and told him: 'I have saved you on the divorce'.

Duffy, 50, failed to wreck father-of-four David's big day and he married Sandra 20 days later as planned after they reinstated the booking.

But the couple say Duffy was so opposed to their union she turned up at the registry office during the wedding and showered them with abuse after they became husband and wife.

Her bizarre scheme landed her in trouble with the law after the furious couple reported the deception to police, and she has now been jailed.

Duffy, who had introduced the pair in 2012 after befriending Sandra, received an eight week jail sentence at Plymouth Magistrates Court.

She had admitted a charge of harassment without violence at an earlier hearing.

Chairman of the bench Graham Price, said: 'Miss Duffy your course of conduct is totally unacceptable and culminated in this telephone call.

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'You meant to cause inconvenience and upset and knew the outcome. It was a deliberate and spiteful plan and a vindictive offence.'

Speaking at a previous hearing, Will Rose, prosecuting, compared the case to a plot line from BBC soap Eastenders.

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He said: 'You may be forgiven for thinking that this is a lift from an Eastenders plot line but this is the sad reality confronting the defendants in this case.

'On the 5th November came a cruel and vindictive act. This defendant contacted the registry office pretending to be Miss Hardy and cancelled the wedding ceremony.

'The registry office took this request seriously and so the ceremony was cancelled. At 10:15pm the same day this defendant telephoned her brother to inform him.

'As soon as he answered the phone he heard 'You better put this on speaker phone you both need to hear this'.

'They heard the defendant say 'I've saved you on a divorce, I've cancelled your wedding.'

Fortunately maintenance worker David, who has been married before, was able to rebook the wedding the following day and the wedding was able to take place on November 25.

The court heard Duffy, of Plymouth, has 23 convictions and 41 offences dating between 1990 and 2012 for crimes including theft, affray, assault and battery.

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Rebecca Wood, defending Duffy, said: 'She admits the allegations and accepts full responsibility for the actions she took. She intended to cause inconvenience and upset.'

Duffy, who became friendly with Sandra after they met on Facebook, introduced the couple in July 2012 but was horrified when she and her older brother began dating.

When they announced their engagement three months later made it clear she did not approve and vowed to stop them marrying.

The court previously heard Duffy had told officers she cancelled the wedding to cause her sister-in-law distress - but not to upset her brother.

She said she was trying to protect father-of-four David from a marriage to someone she disliked and who she believed was taking her mother away.

Duffy - who claimed the family had fallen out over her sick mother - was also given a restraining order against Sandra Duffy for an indefinite period.