Neighbours from hell who waged a campaign of harassment against a family who complained about the smell of their Chinese cooking have been told to pay more than £26,000 in compensation.

A hearing at Oxford County Court yesterday ruled Paula Ho and husband Kwok Hang Ho, of Tweed Crescent in Bicester, caused a nuisance and harassed neighbours Paula and Robert Burden.

The four-day trial heard they alerted police more than 50 times accusing the Burdens of acting in a racist manner, turned on a security frog which croaked all day and night, built a two metre high fence topped with razor wire and pointed CCTV cameras over their property.

The Ho family also sent letters to 35 other neighbours accusing Mr Burden of racism and burglary, and took photographs as them as they carried out chores and as they left the house.

In one case, the Ho family drove alongside Mrs Burden on the A34, taking pictures through the window.

The row started in 2002, when the Burdens complained about a new fan belonging to the Ho family which wafted the smell of Chinese food into their home.

Recorder Richard Hamlin found the Ho family guilty of causing harassment and nuisance.

He ordered them to pay £26,200 compensation and recommended a payment of up to 90 per cent of the Burdens' £35,000 legal costs.

Neither family wished to comment, but the Burdens' family litigator Dan Lavington told the Oxford Mail they regretted the case reached court.

Mr Burden had told the hearing police visited his home during a family christening and during barbecues, after allegations of racist behaviour.

The Ho family installed at least three CCTV cameras overlooking their neighbours' land and after he set up his own cameras, they built a fence topped with razor wire, Mr Burden added.

A court ordered the fence to be removed last year. The Recorder said: "The Hos called the police and local authority and any other group to complain for any possible excuse, or when there was no excuse at all. Virtually all included complaints of racism, of which there was never any possible explanation. At the later stages, it may well be the police officers were positively embarrassed to arrive at the house, but they had to because of the assertion that the Burdens' activity was racist.

"They took photos whenever they could and carried cameras with them for this purpose. This resulted in the extraordinary situation where Mrs Burden was photographed during the most menial domestic chores."

Speaking earlier at the trial, Mrs Ho said she set up the cameras because she believed someone from the Burdens' home had burgled her house and glued the extractor fan.

She pledged not to make racist complaints to the police again.

The Recorder ordered Mr Burden to pay £500 each to Mr and Mrs Ho for a counter claim of harassment, due to his own CCTV cameras overlooking their property.