A man who has been sentenced after a bizarre and unexplained campaign against the residents of a north Belfast street works as a security consultant.
Timothy Mann, who is employed by Envision Intelligent Solutions, last month pleaded guilty to nine counts of keying cars in Ashley Gardens.
Mann (59), who lives nearby, caused thousands of pounds worth of damage as he repeatedly scraped the full length of the cars with a key or a sharp object.
At Belfast Magistrates Court yesterday he was sentenced to 200 hours community service and fined £3,700.
A judge warned him that if he hadn't pleaded guilty he would have been sent to jail.
Read more:Man sentenced for thousands of pounds worth of damage to cars in north Belfast
Residents of the street couldn't understand why they were being targeted and although the middle-aged culprit pleaded guilty, Mann has not been forced to explain his motivations to court.
Almost all the damage was caused while Mann walked down the street in the early hours, on his way home to nearby Castle Gardens, after spending the evening in a local pub.
After years of damage to their cars, one resident had security cameras installed and caught the brazen culprit, whose own job includes installing security cameras, on video.
With the help of residents, police later identified Mann and arrested him.
One victim told of the anxiety and stress that the recurring attacks had on him and his wife and how he "still has no idea why we were targeted".
The man, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Irish News of how their cars were damaged - usually scrapes covering the length of the vehicle - around 15 times, including 11 attacks in just six months.
"The anxiety of going out every morning to look at our car and the constant worry, it was awful and really affected my wife," he said.
Residents suspect Mann is responsible for a 15 further vandalism attacks on cars in the street, including damaging some vehicles multiple times.
It is estimated that the total cost of the vandalism is up to £30,000.
Mann pleaded guilty earlier this year to nine counts of criminal damage to cars on dates between April 8 and June 4 this year and caught on CCTV.
The charges related to two Volkswagen vehicles belonging to one injured party, and a Hyundai owned by another motorist.
The victim last night told how his ordeal began around three years ago.
"In the beginning it was infrequent damage caused to our cars right outside our front door," he said.
"During the first year, it happened a couple of times. But then it became more frequent, every morning you would be sick to your stomach walking out to the car to see if it had been done again.
"It was from the tail end of the car right to the front and it looked like it was a key used or some sort of tool - it went right the full length of the vehicle.
"From January this year, it became more frequent and particularly happened around times such as long weekends or St Patrick's Day.
"We were constantly looking out, checking if the car had been damaged again and then we began to see and hear that more cars were being damaged in the same street, but we always got done.
"We had originally thought it was because we were one of the first houses on the street, but we even parked one of our cars further up the street to see if that would make a difference, but it was still targeted.
"We were racking our brains about why, thinking have we offended anyone, have we said something wrong. We had no altercation with anyone or caused anyone ill-will - we live a quiet life, so I knew that none of that was the case.
"We still don't know why and the anxiety of going out every morning to look at our car and the constant worry, it was awful and really affected my wife."
The victim said they decided to install CCTV in a bid to catch the person responsible.
Looking for someone to erect the cameras, ironically, they were given the number of Mann, as a local security consultant, by a friend.
"We ended up going with someone else and got the CCTV installed at the house, obviously at our own cost, but how ironic that Mann could have been the one installing the CCTV at our house.
"By getting the CCTV installed, that's when we were able to provide evidence to police and eventually they managed to track him down."
He added that despite Mann pleading guilty, he remains in the dark about why they were targeted.
"It was a very difficult period, my wife particularly found it very difficult to sleep at night, I was more pragmatic about it," he said.
"She was left so anxious by it all and particularly because we had no idea why it was happening. She was constantly looking out the window.
"Still to this day, I don't know why we became his targets."
Asked if Mann remained employed as a security consultant following his conviction, Envision Intelligent Solutions did not respond.
Read more:Man sentenced for thousands of pounds worth of damage to cars in north Belfast
