A JEALOUS ex-lover was found guilty of stalking his estranged wife after being charged with fitting a tracker to her car.

A court heard that pensioner William Robert Simpson continually harassed his wife Susan Simpson after she left him to start a relationship with a work colleague.

South Cumbria Magistrates’ Court heard that he targeted her with abusive phone calls and text messages between June and July last year.

Simpson, 66, denied the offence but was found guilty by the bench of magistrates and served with a restraining order.

He was said to have been angered at the end of the couple’s 23-year marriage when Mrs Simpson told him she was leaving.

She later started a relationship with Bensons for Beds colleague Paul Stockdale before moving in with him in Oxenholme, near Kendal.

Mrs Simpson told the court that her estranged husband gave back her car, an Audi A3, saying he had removed a tracker under the bonnet.

But the court heard that after Mrs Simpson noticed mechanical problems she took the car to a garage, where a mechanic alerted her to the tracker.

Giving evidence, Mrs Simpson said: “He showed me the black box and told me he had taken off the tracker.”

She also told the court that her husband found out she was living in Oxenholme, telling her he became aware through ‘ways and means’.

Simpson said the tracker was used to keep an eye on his sons’ driving when they used the car and claimed his wife had full knowledge of it.

Mrs Simpson also told court how she received a number of phone calls from husband.

She told magistrates he once called her 19 times at around 1am, though Simpson claimed he was calling for help after he collapsed.

He also phoned her place work claiming she had stolen a number of items from the furniture chain.

When he texted her threatening to contact a newspaper with the claims, she replied: “You are putting me through hell. Just do what you want to me.”

Describing the impact on her, Mrs Simpson said: “I had worked really hard for him to try and ruin it all for me.”

Her new partner Mr Stockdale said Simpson had repeatedly called the store to be abusive.

The defendant, of Blea Beck in Askam, was sentenced to a curfew ordering him to stay at his home between 7pm and 7am for the next six weeks.

Magistrates also handed him a restraining order, banning him from contacting Mrs Simpson or entering the Kendal Bensons for Beds store for two years.

Sentencing Simpson, chair of the bench Mike Halshaw told him: “This has been an unfortunate case for everyone.

"But there is a victim.

“This behaviour cannot be tolerated.

“I hope both of you can now move on.”