A STALKER who bugged his estranged wife’s car and handbag with listening and tracking devices walked free from court demanding changes in legislation.

A woman was left traumatised and “constantly checking” her rear-view mirror after being stalked by Stockton businessman Andrew Hunter, Teesside Magistrates Court heard on Tuesday.

The 41-year-old left the mother of his children fearing she was constantly being watched after he planted a listening device in the lining of her bag and a tracker under a mat in her car during a two-month campaign of harassment.

Until the woman discovered the devices and fled to a refuge, the pair had been sharing a home but living separate lives.

Hunter began bugging her in an attempt to prove that she was cheating on him after she began dating other men following the breakdown of their marriage.

After once ripping open her handbag during a confrontation and presenting her with a listening device, he still continued to track her movements, only being arrested after she discovered another bug in her car and handed it to police.

A statement from the victim said: “I feel really scared and am constantly checking my rear view mirror to see if he is following me and I regularly check for tracking and listening devices – I want to stop feeling so vulnerable.”

Simon Walker, mitigating, said Hunter had not realised it was a offence to use electronic recording and tracking devices to stalk his wife.

Mr Walker questioned the use of anti-stalking legislation and said the devices were not used in a bid “to follow her forever but to ascertain whether she was having an affair” and that his behaviour would not have been classed as stalking “if he had followed her to the pub and there had been a big set-to there”.

Hunter, of Birkdale Road, Stockton, pleaded guilty to a charge of stalking without fear, alarm or distress at a previous hearing.

He was handed an 18-month community order and told to complete a ‘Building Better Relationships’ course and ordered to pay £485 in costs and fines.

After the hearing Hunter called for a change in stalking legislation, claiming guidance was not clear and that it could currently be used by women “as a tool” to get better results in court.

He said issues within a marriage were “a very different scenario to traditional stalking” and that stalking laws were being “manipulated by people in relationships to get their own point over another person”.

He added: “I don’t think it’s right for someone to be constantly monitoring someone’s behaviour to the extent it becomes abusive or controlling.

“But for a husband or wife to take the very minimum amount of steps required to reveal an affair and then stop once they’ve done that, you could argue whether or not that was acceptable.”

Richinda Taylor, of EVA Women’s Aid, welcomed Hunter’s conviction and said she was glad his estranged wife could turn to the law for protection.

Ms Taylor said: “Thank goodness that the law does not differentiate between whether you are married, living together, know the person or don’t.

“The offence has been committed and he has been convicted accordingly. I hope he will come to see that his behaviour was inappropriate and unacceptable and that it was irrelevant whether he was married or not.”

An allegation of physical abuse was dropped following an agreement at an earlier hearing.