AN OFFSHORE WORKER who tracked the movements of his ex-girlfriend through a bug planted on her car ended up appearing before Elgin Sheriff Court on Thursday.
Thomas Bush, 33, placed a homing device into the brake lights of Maree Geddes’s vehicle so that he could track her movements by computer – even when he was offshore.
He then repeatedly telephoned Miss Geddes, letting her know that he knew where she had been – it was only after being told by a friend who knew what Bush had done that she discovered the device and went to the police.
Fiscal Kevin Morton told the court how Miss Geddes became suspicious that Bush, from Elgin, always knew where she was: “Bush was challenged about how he knew but he refused to give any explanation – it eventually came to light that Mr Bush had placed a mobile tracker within the vehicle.”
Speaking on Bush’s behalf solicitor Stephen Carty said the couple had gone through an acrimonious break-up but his client had not intended to cause upset. He said: “He accepts his behaviour was unacceptable – while his conduct was not abusive it was perhaps the persistence that has led to the charge.”
Mr Carty added that his client accepted the tracker was “ridiculous” and that he found it hard to accept that he had acted in such a manner.
Bush was ordered to undertake 225 hours of unpaid work as part of a community payback order, with Sheriff Olga Pasportnikov telling him: “While the behaviour was alarming it was not abusive – and on that basis I am prepared to stop short of a custodial sentence.”