Tatters must pay £1,000 over noisy bugle music

Two scrap metal merchants have been ordered to pay £1,000 each for blaring out bugle music from their vans in Staffordshire after a court heard they disturbed shift workers.

The pair were convicted in separate cases of operating a loudspeaker to advertise for business in Stafford, even though one claimed he was actually playing a bugle which is not illegal.

Environmental health officer Andrew Price told Cannock magistrates the problem with tatters' noise had become "desperate" for staff working nights for the emergency services whose sleep was disrupted.

He said after the trials that the council had identified 26 scrap metal vehicles causing problems in the last 12 months, adding: "I have had more than one nurse on the phone in tears because they are sleep deprived."

Kevin Fletcher, aged 51, was spotted by Mr Price in Silkmore Crescent, Stafford, at about 11.15am on August 10 playing a CD of bugle music in his lorry with his windows wound down.

Fletcher, of Mackay Road, Walsall, claimed he was driving to B&Q but had taken a wrong turn into the street.

He admitted he owned a CD with such music but said he only played it using his car door speakers, and was not playing it on that day.

But magistrates rejected his version of events and convicted him. He was fined £600, ordered to pay £420 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

Mark Rollason, 41, also denied playing a recording of bugle music in his van, and said he was in fact playing the bugle while he drove.

But he was spotted by Councillor Ralph Cooke, who came into his front garden in Brunswick Terrace, Stafford, when he heard the sound. Councillor Cooke, who plays the bugle and the trumpet himself, told the court on Friday: "I'm aware of what a musical instrument looks like, I'm also very aware that the mistakes were perfectly replicated each time."

Rollason, of Nursery Road, Walsall, insisted he was playing the bugle intermittently. But magistrates convicted him of operating a loud speak to advertise for business and ordered him to pay a £600 fine, £420 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.