A WOMAN smashed the windows of a property in Prestonpans in a “tit-for-tat” neighbour feud.

Jacqueline Stevenson threw several stones through the front window of the home at the town’s North Bank Road on March 1 last year.

Stevenson, of The Promenade, Port Seton, launched the stones, resulting in them landing inside the property, causing damage.

She pleaded guilty to the offence of culpably and recklessly causing damage to the home with utter disregard for the consequences at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last year and was back in the dock for sentencing on Friday.

Solicitor Peter Barr, representing Stevenson, told the court that sentence had been deferred for his client to be of good behaviour and that she had not been in trouble with the police since her last court appearance.

Mr Barr said that the offence occurred following “a background of animosity between Ms Stevenson’s and the complainer’s family” and there had been an element of “tit-for-tat retaliation”.

The lawyer said that there had been an allegation of property belonging to Stevenson’s mother being damaged in the feud but added “hopefully this is an isolated matter” on his unemployed client’s part.

Sheriff Peter Anderson said: “I know very little about the background to this case but I know enough that there is a history between you and the complainer.

“But it is never appropriate to take things into your own hands.”

Stevenson, 40, was fined £60 to mark the offence.