Ipswich Crown Court

A SUFFOLK man who turned a family’s move to a “dream home” into a nightmare after he left sinister notes demanding money and started two fires in the grounds has been jailed for 18 months.

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The family had been at their new home near Bury St Edmunds for two months in September last year when the father discovered the driver’s door of his Mini, which was parked in a carport, had been propped open with a pickaxe.

Inside, a message written in black marker pen had been left saying “£5,000 on the doorstep within the week or face the consequences”, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

The victim also noticed that two pairs of pants had been removed from the washing line and hung on the wing mirrors of the car, said Godfried Duah, prosecuting.

The following week, on October 4 at around 10.15pm, the victim had been going to a wood store in the grounds when he noticed the smell of burning.

He found some burning plastic under a front wheel of his other car, a Discovery, and after putting out that fire he noticed a further fire had been started in a wheelie bin, which he also put out.

Mr Duah said a message had been written on the wheelie bin saying, “Final warning. One week or else.”

On October 10 the victim had been keeping watch from the loft for the person responsible for the previous incidents when the security light at the front of the house was triggered.

When he went downstairs he saw a man crouching down looking through a window but the intruder had run off.

The police were notified and on October 11, 21-year-old Adam Ladd was arrested after a policeman saw him in the area carrying a stepladder.

When Ladd was confronted he had run off and was found in a garage where police also found a marker pen. Ladd’s fingerprints were later matched to prints found on the Mini.

Mr Duah said the victim and his family had been renovating the house and had described it as their “dream home”.

He said Ladd’s behaviour had caused a great deal of upset and stress and had left family members fearing for their safety.

Ladd, of Plovers Way, Bury St Edmunds, admitted blackmailing the family between September 26 and October 6 last year.

Jailing him, Judge Peter Thompson described Ladd’s behaviour as “bizarre” and said he had put the family in “real fear.”

He said the fact that the threats were anonymous had made the incident all the more worrying for the family.

Robert O’Sullivan, for Ladd, said his client was a former national paragliding champion and had been drinking before he visited the family’s home.

He was genuinely remorseful for what he had done and appreciated how worrying the incident had been for the family.

Mr O’Sullivan said there was no suggestion that Ladd felt any hostility towards the family and hadn’t been targeting them personally.

He said although Ladd wasn’t mentally ill a psychologist thought he showed early signs of a less intense version of a bipolar disorder.