A MOTHER-OF-TWO who told her neighbours to "go back where they came from" was convicted of racially-aggravated harassment.

Banbury Magistrates' Court heard Elaine Pontefract, of New Street, Bicester, was angry about her neighbours' loft conversion and extension.

As well as being verbally abusive, she was accused of leaving bananas on the fence to cause racial offence to her neighbour Jean McCubbin.

Although magistrates cleared Mrs Pontefract of the accusation relating to the bananas, she was found guilty of using racist words during the incident, last September.

Ms McCubbin, of Buckingham Road, said Mrs Pontefract had sworn and shouted at her over the fence about building materials in her garden earlier that day.

Ms McCubbin said: "She said, 'You're trouble, you are. All you people are trouble'. Then she went on to say,'You should go back to where you came from, all you people should go back to where you came from'.

"I stood there for a little while with my mouth open.

"It was racist, there was nothing else that she could have meant by that."

Ms McCubbin, who moved to Bicester from Oxford in 2005, added later that afternoon she noticed a bunch of bananas on the fence.

Mrs Pontefract, 44, said she was upset about the building work, but denied racially-aggravated harassment.

Crying as she gave evidence, she said: "What they have built is this massive loft dormer extension that totally overlooks us and it's an awful sight."

Mrs Pontefract said she was upset that day as her fence was "bulging" due to building materials piled up against it.

She said Ms McCubbin hadn't heard her properly.

She said: "I told her to move back where she came from, meaning Blackbird Leys and nothing else."

But she said she didn't put the bananas on the fence because she was shopping with her mother Pamela Watkins at the time of the alleged incident.

Chairman of the magistrates Nicholas Chance gave Mrs Pontefract a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered her to pay Ms McCubbin £100 compensation.