by Jenni Horn

A noisy neighbour’s stereo has been confiscated after he cranked up the volume and boomed out pop tracks by Chris de Burgh and Celine Dion.

Medway Council seized the equipment after receiving complaints about Mark Sigston in October last year.

Officers from the environmental protection team visited the 29-year-old’s address several times to ask him to keep the noise down.

But all their approaches were ignored, so they served Sigston, of Quinnell Street, Rainham, with a noise abatement notice in February.

Council officers continued monitoring the situation to see if he was still playing his music loudly. On one occasion, they were outside his home and heard his system belting out tunes such as Angels by Robbie Williams, Firework by Katy Perry and Who Knew by Pink.

Weeks later, during an evening visit, they heard Celine Dion’s All By Myself, Lady in Red by Chris de Burgh and George Benson’s The Greatest Love of All being played loudly.

In May, the council obtained a warrant from the courts allowing them to temporarily seize Sigston’s stereo equipment.

Two months later, council officers returned Sigston’s stereo to him, as they had to under the terms of the warrant.

He was warned that if he breached the abatement notice again his equipment would be seized again and he would face prosecution – but just three days later, officers were called to a noisy party at Sigston’s address.

This time the team seized his stereo, TV and computer as they all could be used to play music loudly.

He was invited to be interviewed under caution but did not respond, so the case was sent to court.

In the dock, Sigston pleaded guilty to three charges of breaching a noise abatement order.

He was given a conditional discharge for 12 months and issued with a forfeiture order to permanently confiscate his CD players, mixers, amplifier and speakers.

Sigston will have to pay £1,100 in legal and investigation costs.

Cllr Mike O’Brien, who is in charge of community safety and customer contact, said: "There is nothing worse than annoyingly relentless loud music being played by a neighbour.

"I am glad we have been able to help those living nearby this man as he was determined to carry on playing music loudly without a thought for others."

Read Sigston's reaction in tomorrow's Medway Messenger.