An employee of a Suffolk travel company which was allegedly subjected to a campaign of damage by a disgruntled former employee found a card with a menacing message following a burglary at the business's office premises, a court has heard.

Claire Tillett, who was a general manager for Goldline Travel, which was based at Ellough near Beccles, said she had arrived at work one morning in May 2013 to find there had been a burglary and that keys to Goldline vehicles were missing from hooks in a kitchen area.

She told a jury at Ipswich Crown Court that on one of the empty hooks was a card with a picture of a toilet or excrement and inside was written: “Haha you’re f***** now”.

Miss Tillett said she had immediately recognised the writing as being that of Adrian Ling, a former Goldline employee, who she had previously been in a relationship with for four years.

 Ling, 63, of Woodside, Beccles and Daniel Garrison, 34, of Danforth Drive, Woodbridge,  have denied conspiring to commit criminal damage to property belonging to Goldline Travel between December 2012 and November 2019.

Ling has also denied four offences of having an air rifle with intent to commit criminal damage.

It has been alleged that during a campaign of violence by Ling and Garrison against Goldline Travel its vehicles were repeatedly vandalised and, on several occasions, taxis were shot at.

The court heard that Ling started working with Goldline in 2008 as a mechanic and was sacked by its owner Ian Trussler in 2012.

“It is clear that he was very angry about being sacked and it’s the prosecution case that he has harboured a significant personal grudge against Ian Trussler and Goldline and has carried out a sustained vendetta against them,” alleged Andrew Thompson, prosecuting 

He claimed that Ling, who was convicted of stealing diesel from Goldline but subsequently acquitted on appeal, started the vendetta following his dismissal while Garrison allegedly joined the conspiracy in 2016.

The trial continues.