Stalker put a tracker on her ex's car, redirected his mail and smeared him as a benefits cheat, court hears

A businesswoman put a tracker on her ex-boyfriend's car, redirected his mail and smeared him as a benefit cheat during a mission to get him to pay extra child support, a court was told.

Veronica Jackson, 44, secretly placed a Safe Tag device on her ex's vehicle and diverted his letters to a drop off location in a bid to prove to the Child Support Agency he had a job and could afford maintenance of £200-a-month.

Her jobless victim, who said he was only able to give £6.25 a week to help with the upkeep of the couple's 12-year-old-daughter, received a series of messages from Jackson showing routes he had taken to and from his home, the times of the journeys plus messages from her saying: ''I know where you are - I know what you are doing.''

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Other texts read: “I have enough evidence to have you done for benefit fraud. Picture log ins all sorts. So we can sort this out between us or I will take the official route, are you going to talk? I want you to pay for our daughter as you should be doing. You’ve made a really bad error for the last few months.”

During her campaign Jackson found out her former partner was due to lose his rented flat when private letters sent to him by his landlord were diverted to her. He eventually got himself a job as a nightclub doorman but she made an anonymous call to his new employer requesting confidential information about him and falsely claiming police were investigating him for fraud.

Jackson, of Chelford Road in Henbury, Macclesfield, who runs a hair extensions business, was eventually reported to police after her victim contacted the Royal Mail to ask why he had not been getting any letters and he was supplied with a forwarding address.

He made his own inquiries at the house and was shocked to find Jackson's car parked in the drive. When police arrested her, they found a sack of mail at her home with letters addressed to him which had been opened. He said when he blocked Jackson on WhatsApp he found a packet of flour tipped over his vehicle the following day.

At Warrington magistrates court, Jackson was convicted of stalking and a charge of delaying mail following a trial. She pleaded guilty to theft of mail. She will be sentenced later this month.

The court heard the pair had began a relationship in 2010 and had a daughter together in 2012 but they split up eight years later.

He told the hearing: “I had made a few offers to the Child Support Agency and there have been numerous times we agreed a figure and they said ‘yes, that sounds a good amount'. But the amount Veronica wanted off me I could not afford and I told her that and it came to a bit of a stalemate.

“One morning I was seeing a friend in Bolton and Veronica sent a message through with a picture of my car and a picture of some kind of app. It had what time I set off, what route I took, where I ended up, and she was accusing me of working, not paying enough, and all kinds of things with it. I was not working at the time.

“She said things like, ‘I know where you are, I know what you are doing, you will be reported for fraud'. I felt scared and nervous and I felt like I was being harassed. It was non-stop messaging. Obviously with the tracking, it made me feel nervous. I did not know what to do.

“I could not move without her knowing where I was and sending them messages. I was looking out the window all the time. Is something going to come through my door? It was stressful.”

He added: “I told Veronica the CSA were dealing with it and to leave me alone. I said 'we can sort this out, stop harassing me. Stop stalking me and making my life that I cannot go anywhere. Leave me alone. Let's get on with our lives. Let's sort stuff out properly for our daughter'. But she kept texting me.

“At the time I was renting a flat and I got a message from the landlord saying he was selling it. Then I got a message off Veronica saying ‘haha, I'm so sorry to see you being homeless. You deserve this. You are being evicted'.

“I asked myself ‘how does she know this?’ and I even went to the stage of ringing the estate agent to ask 'is there someone in your office leaking information?’ It was blowing my mind how she knew this information. Only the landlord and the estate agent dealing with it knew about it.

“I was not getting any post for about two or three weeks and I thought that was a bit odd so I went to the post office and enquired and they said my mail had been redirected to this address. I went to the address and Veronica's car was in the drive. That is why she knew about the personal stuff. Whatever mail went, she obviously found it. She found out about my house situation.

”It made me feel sick, vulnerable, scared. What else next? I blocked her on WhatsApp because she was sending me threatening messages on the Tuesday night,” he said. “On the Wednesday morning I woke up and my car was full of white flour. It took three days to get it off.

"I got a telephone call from my manager saying 'a woman has been on the phone, that you are wanted by Cheshire CID'."

In her evidence, Jackson claimed her ex had been working as a building site manager whilst claiming benefits and added: ''In a phone call I had with the CSA they asked me if I could find out where he was working and I said 'leave it with me'.

“He said he was on benefits but we were gathering information that he was working which would have changed the payments from £6.25 a week to £50 a week which is what I've asked for. I called the CSA back. I had details of where he was working. They asked if I could get a bank statement or a payslip to prove he was working. So, I redirected his mail."

When she was asked if she thought putting the tracker on his vehicle was stalking, she said: “There was no contact with (him), he would not talk with me and he continuously put the phone down on the CSA. He ignored all letters from the CSA. I was trying to get him to pay for my daughter. I am a single mum with a 12-year-old child with no payments whatsoever from her father. I did not know how else to do it.''

Prosecutor Vincent Yip said: “There is simply no excuse for doing what she did. He was in fear. He didn't know what was going to happen. Tracking someone, their location, redirecting their post without permission, calling their place of work, making enquiries, a reasonable person would find that is stalking and unreasonable in all the circumstances.''

But defence lawyer Lionel Greig said: “She was trying to prove that he was working and she and her daughter are entitled to appropriate benefits properly calculated. She can obtain legal advice but there is a cost element and those are significant in family proceedings. There is the possibility of instructing a private detective. but again it all costs - the defendant simply did not have the means.

''She was simply trying to demonstrate that he was working and had financial responsibilities to his daughter.”

In convicting Jackson, the chairman of the bench Robin Bradshaw told her: ''You did admit to fitting the tracker, redirecting and opening mail and contacting his place of work. Whilst we have sympathy for the situation you find yourself in, we reject that your course of conduct was reasonable in the circumstances, due to other evidence being so compelling. You ought to have known your course of conduct would amount to stalking.''

Jackson is to be sentenced on July 26.