A MOTHER who bugged her ex-boyfriend’s car and redirected his post in a bid to get more child support is facing jail for stalking.
Veronica Jackson, 44, secretly placed a tracker on Kevin McCormack’s vehicle and diverted his letters to a drop-off location in a bid to prove he had a job – and could afford £200 monthly maintenance.
Jobless Mr McCormack had claimed he was only able to give £6.25 a week to help with the upkeep of the couple’s 12-year-old daughter.
Warrington Magistrates Court heard the pair had began a relationship in 2010 and had a daughter together in 2012, but they split up eight years later.
The court was told Mr McCormack received a series of messages from Jackson, from Macclesfield, Cheshire, showing routes he had taken to and from his home.
They also included the times of the journeys and messages from Jackson saying: ”I know where you are – I know what you are doing.”
Other texts read: “I have enough evidence to have you done for benefit fraud. Picture log ins all sorts.
“So we can sort this out between us or I will take the official route, are you going to talk Kevin?
“I want you to pay for our daughter as you should be doing. You’ve made a really bad error for the last few months.”
During her campaign Jackson, who runs a hair extensions business, found out Mr McCormack was due to lose his rented flat when private letters sent to him by his landlord were diverted.
He eventually got himself a job as a nightclub doorman but she made an anonymous call to his new employer requesting confidential information about him and falsely claiming police were investigating him for fraud.
Jackson was eventually reported to police after Mr McCormack contacted the Royal Mail to ask why he had not been getting any letters and was supplied with a forwarding address.
He made his own inquiries at the drop-off address where the post was being forwarded, and was shocked to find Jackson’s car parked in the drive.
When police arrested her, they found a sack of mail at her home with letters addressed to him – which had been opened.
Mr McCormack said when blocked Jackson on WhatsApp he found a packet of flour tipped over his vehicle the following day.
At Warrington Magistrates Court, Jackson was convicted of stalking and a charge of delaying mail following a trial and faces up to six months in jail under sentencing guidelines.
Jackson pleaded guilty to theft of mail. She will be sentenced later this month.
Mr McCormack had told the court he had made several offers to the Child Support Agency (CSA) and there were “numerous times” where a figure had been agreed.
He added: “But the amount Veronica wanted off me I could not afford and I told her that and it came to a bit of a stalemate.”
He said that one morning he was visiting a friend in Bolton and Jackson sent him a message with a picture of his car and an image from “some kind of app”.
It showed what time he left, the route he took, and where he arrived, the court heard.
“She was accusing me of working, not paying enough, and all kinds of things with it,” Mr McCormack said, adding that he was not working at the time.
“She said things like, ‘I know where you are, I know what you are doing, you will be reported for fraud.’
“I felt scared and nervous and I felt like I was being harassed. It was non-stop messaging.
“Obviously with the tracking, it made me feel nervous. I did not know what to do.
“I could not move without her knowing where I was and sending them messages.
“I was looking out the window all the time. Is something going to come through my door? It was stressful.”
Mr McCormack said he told Jackson the CSA were dealing with it and she should leave him alone.
He added: “I said: ‘We can sort this out, stop harassing me. Stop stalking me and making my life that I cannot go anywhere. Leave me alone. Let’s get on with our lives. Let’s sort stuff out properly for our daughter.’
“But she kept texting me.”
He said that he received a message from his landlord saying he was selling the flat Mr McCormack had been renting.
He added: “Then I got a message off Veronica saying ‘Haha, I’m so sorry to see you being homeless. You deserve this. You are being evicted.’
“I asked myself ‘How does she know this?’ and I even went to the stage of ringing the estate agent to ask: ‘Is there someone in your office leaking information?’
“It was blowing my mind how she knew this information. Only the landlord and the estate agent dealing with it knew about it.”
He added that he had not been receiving any post for two or three weeks, so he asked about this at the Post Office – who told him his mail was being redirected.
Mr McCormack said he visited the address and saw his ex’s car in the driveway, which made him “feel sick, vulnerable, scared”, and was left thinking “What else next?”
I felt scared and nervous and I felt like I was being harassed. It was non-stop messaging.
Kevin McCormack
He told the court: “I blocked her on WhatsApp because she was sending me threatening messages on the Tuesday night.
“On the Wednesday morning I woke up and my car was full of white flour. It took three days to get it off.
”I got a telephone call from my manager saying: ‘A woman has been on the phone, that you are wanted by Cheshire CID’. She said: ‘Do you know who is working for you? Do you know what he does?’
“All kinds of things.”
In her evidence, Jackson claimed Mr McCormack had been working as a building site manager whilst claiming benefits.
She said that in a phone call with the CSA they asked if she could find out where he was working and she said “Leave it with me”.
Jackson told the court: “He said he was on benefits but we were gathering information that he was working which would have changed the payments from £6.25 a week to £50 a week which is what I’ve asked for.
“I called the CSA back. I had details of where he was working. They asked if I could get a bank statement or a payslip to prove he was working. So, I redirected his mail.”
When she was asked if she thought putting the tracker on his vehicle was stalking, she said: “There was no contact with Kevin, he would not talk with me and he continuously put the phone down on the CSA.
“He ignored all letters from the CSA. I was trying to get him to pay for my daughter. I am a single mum with a 12-year-old child with no payments whatsoever from her father.
“I did not know how else to do it.”
Prosecutor Vincent Yip said there was “simply no excuse” for Jackson doing what she did.
He added: “He was in fear. He didn’t know what was going to happen.
“Tracking someone, their location, redirecting their post without permission, calling their place of work, making enquiries, a reasonable person would find that is stalking and unreasonable in all the circumstances.”
But defence lawyer Lionel Greig said Jackson had been trying to prove that Mr McCormack was working and the mother and daughter were “entitled to appropriate benefits properly calculated”.
Mr Greig added: “She can obtain legal advice but there is a cost element and those are significant in family proceedings.
“There is the possibility of instructing a private detective. But again it all costs – the defendant simply did not have the means.
”She was simply trying to demonstrate that he was working and had financial responsibilities to his daughter.”
In convicting Jackson, JP Robin Bradshaw told her: ”You did admit to fitting the tracker, redirecting and opening mail and contacting his place of work.
“Whilst we have sympathy for the situation you find yourself in, we reject that your course of conduct was reasonable in the circumstances, due to other evidence being so compelling.
“You ought to have known your course of conduct would amount to stalking.”
