Woman who breached noise abatement notice with barking dogs convicted

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A Runcorn resident has been convicted of breaching noise abatement notice after investigation by Halton Borough Council’s Environmental Health department.

She kept multiple dogs in a semi-detached property.

Abigail Findlay-Stankovich of Bluebell Court, Runcorn, pleaded guilty at Warrington Magistrates’ Court, to one charge of breaching a noise abatement notice.

Findlay-Stankovich, aged 67, was sentenced on Monday 1 March 2021. She was fined £480 and has to pay a victim surcharge of £48 and prosecution costs of £1500.

The investigation began in June 2018 when the Council received a complaint from another resident about noise from barking dogs from within her property.

At that time it was believed Ms Findlay-Stankovich was keeping up to 16 dogs in her semi-detached property.

The Council wrote to Ms Findlay-Stankovic to advise her that a complaint had been received and warned her that the Council may use sound recording equipment during the course of its investigation.

The Council installed sound recording equipment in the complainant’s property and the recordings demonstrated that the dogs were barking repeatedly to the extent that they caused a statutory nuisance.

After the abatement notice was served the Council continued to receive complaints and decided to re-install the sound recording equipment in March 2019.

Subsequently, the Council heard evidence o  barks occurring over a number of days.

Halton Borough Council’s Executive Board Member for Environmental Health, Cllr Stef Nelson,  said: “The Council takes all allegations relating to noise nuisance seriously and we will always work with residents to try and resolve any noise issues informally.

*No breed names available. The current whereabouts of the dogs remains a matter for Ms Findlay-Stankovic and the Council is not privy to that information.