A COUPLE have spoken of their relief after their neighbours who accused them of being police informers and “grasses” were given restraining orders by a court.

Stephen Causer and his partner Sharon Smith said the harassment they had suffered at the hands of Javid Khaliq and Anissa Gregory made them ill and forced them to install CCTV cameras at the front of their property.

Teesside Crown Court heard that there had been as many as 180 incidents where allegations and counter allegations had been investigated by police.

But after seeing Khaliq – a convicted drug dealer – and Gregory admit harassment on a handful of occasions and avoid a trial, The Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, delivered a withering assessment of the feud, saying it had been a “waste of police time”.

Prosecutor Kate Dodds said a “very unpleasant” situation developed between the two couples after officers executed a search warrant at the home of Khaliq and Gregory in May last year in Neasham Road, Middleton-St-George, near Darlington.

She said: “It became intolerable [for the complainants]. Effectively it was suggested they were responsible for the drugs raid.

“They were shouted at and called grasses.”

Richard Bennett, for Khaliq, who was jailed in 2010 for two and-a-half years for conspiracy to supply class A drugs, claimed the vast majority of the incidents were extremely petty.

Self-employed taxi driver Khaliq, 38, and mother-of-three Gregory, 36, who was said to have a heart condition making her unsuitable for unpaid work, both apologised for their behaviour.

They were each given two year conditional discharges, while Khaliq, who is originally from Middlesbrough, will pay £500 court costs.

Five year-long restraining orders imposed on them prevent them from using or threatening violence or contacting the victims.

Speaking after the case Ms Smith, 42, said: “We are private people and this has been a massive strain.

“It is pure hell. We have done nothing wrong.

“It has made us ill and we feel quite vulnerable.

“That judge he should come and live with us for a few days and see what it has been like.

“We are not police informers or grasses.”

Mr Causer, 46, a self-employed gardener, said: “I don’t go to bed properly, I go to bed dressed and in my trainers because I know that the one night I don’t something will happen.

“We’re hoping the restraining order will make them pack it in and they’ll leave us alone so we can get on with our lives.”

Charges of perverting the course of justice against Khaliq and Gregory, which they had denied, will lay on file, while no evidence was offered in respect of another harassment charge.

Judge Bourne-Arton said: “This has caused a lot of aggravation and the police have better things to do.”