This man suffered 42,700 crank phone calls ..but his woman stalker

A WOMAN who made 42,700 crank calls and put her victims through a stalking hell for two years has escaped prosecution.

Her calls almost wrecked a successful restaurant business by driving customers away.

And now her furious victims are calling for changes in the law that will make phone pests pay for the devastation they cause.

Restaurant owner Sandra Stewart and manager Keith Bugden were plagued by calls and sick letters from Vivienne Maclennan, 40, after she became smitten with Keith three years ago.

The case became the biggest investigation carried out by BT's nuisance calls division.

It took police two-and-a-half years to make an arrest.

Yet last week Elgin's Procurator Fiscal, Sharon Ralph, decided not to prosecute, ordering the woman to take psychiatric counselling instead.

The fiscal has issued a warning, however, that if she re-offends, Maclennan will be prosecuted.

Sandra, 55, who owns the Rowan Tree in Elgin, Morayshire, said she felt sick to her stomach. "After all the misery I have endured, she walks away from her crimes scot-free. Those calls nearly cost me my business.

"I have been ill for 11 months as a result, and am only now getting back on my feet.

"Even our solicitor is staggered the woman is not being prosecuted, she has done so much damage."

Sandra added: "Until we knew who was making these calls, which was only when she was arrested, all my customers were under suspicion.

"We could not work out how someone knew so much about our movements and personal lives.

"But she was watching our every move, following us and parking outside the restaurant to monitor when we arrived and left."

Sandra explained that the obsession started after manager Keith, 35, spurned the woman's advances when he worked at a nearby caravan park.

Although meaningless to Keith, his casual rejection triggered a shower of sinister cards and weird phone calls that dominated their lives for the next two years.

The cards and notes she sent to him often contained foul language, and referred to his mum, June, who died from a brain tumour seven years ago.

"Somehow she researched my mum's details and sent me mother's day cards with weird messages in them," he said. "I was close to my mum, and it hurt me deeply. Sometimes we had 100 calls in a day. No voice, just odd music or sounds, such as dogs barking. Once she filled the whole 60-minute answer phone tape in the restaurant with calls."

Customers who wanted to reserve tables could not get through, and business slumped. To avoid detection, Maclennan used pay-as-you-go mobile phones and kiosks. BT experts estimate the operation cost her thousands in travel costs and phone calls. Keith, a part-time presenter for a local radio station, said he was bombarded with mail there, too.

"During the anthrax scare she even sent white powder in a card," he said.

Maclennan, who lives with her parents in Inverness, was "unwell" during the time of the calls, her dad James said. "She is getting help now."

Copyright 2003 MGN LTD
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.