Stalker who put tracking device on Yorkshire woman's car is jailed

Leeds Crown Court heard that the woman also made a worrying discovery the day after she was told about the tracker.

Nigel Lamberth, 50, had stuck new number plates on her car that bore the message ‘lady’ followed by her name under the registration. The number plates on Lamberth’s Vauxhall Vectra included a message stating the driver was the named woman’s lover.

Prosecutor Andrew Horton said Lamberth had left his victim “sick with worry.” The court heard she moved home, changed jobs and was left feeling “close to suicide.”

Mr Horton said Lamberth, of Riverside Court in Leeds city centre, committed the offence last November. At the time he was subject to a suspended prison sentence, imposed in December 2017 for previously stalking the woman for 11 months. He had sent her numerous letters and parcels and one card which included the words ‘If I could turn back time’ from a Cher song.

Lamberth was convicted of stalking the woman in December 2017 and handed a 26-week jail sentence, suspended for 12 months. An indefinite restraining order was imposed, banning Lamberth from contacting the woman.

Mr Horton said the woman called police on November 8 last year after the tracking device was found on the underside of her car. Police searched Lamberth’s flat and found the receipt for the tracker. Lamberth also had a small torch that police found was a working Taser.

He admitted stalking, having a Taser and breaching a restraining order.

Abbi Whelan, mitigating for Lamberth, said: “He accepts his actions have caused her considerable upset.”

Jailing him for two-years-and-11-months, Recorder Tahir Khan QC, yesterday told him: “At one point she described how she felt close to suicide, constantly looking around to see where you were.”