A WOMAN has had all her entertainment equipment confiscated after neighbours complained more than 50 times about noise.

Melanie Day, of Nettlebed Mead, Greater Leys, Oxford, pleaded guilty to two offences of failing to comply with a noise abatement notice, covering April and June this year. She was given a 12-month conditional discharge.

Environmental health officers had seized about £700 worth of electrical equipment following complaints from neighbours about the noise, including a stereo, television, DVD player, computer, radio alarm clock, PlayStation, DVDs and CDs.

An investigation was launched after neighbour Nadine Donson contacted the council complaining about music being played at all hours of the night.

She said: "If she had been out with her friends she would come back at 2am or 3am, sometimes later, and turn her stereo on - which would end up waking us up.

"It would be a low bassline which would go through the whole house and it was just constant."

Miss Donson, who lives in the house next door with her three children, Charlotte, Alison, and Molly, said she had approached Ms Day three times asking her to turn the noise down before calling the council.

But she said since Ms Day was taken to court, the music had stopped. She said: "Sometimes we were so unhappy in the house, we had to go out to get away from it.

"One day I pulled up on to the drive and I could hear the music over the engine of my car - that's how loud it was."

She added: "I don't think we thought it would go that far, but we didn't choose for the council to go to court. We have peace and quiet now and we are so pleased that we don't have music at all hours of the day. I have lived here for nearly ten years and, I have actually been feeling unhappy about coming home."

Ms Day was also ordered to pay £200 towards Oxford City Council's costs following her appearance at Oxford Magistrates' Court.

Ian Wright, team leader of the council's public health team, said: "We had received 53 complaints. The person concerned just seemed to ignore all the warnings.

"When we go into a property we take everything that is capable of making a noise but it is not something that we do frequently.

"All we are really asking is for people to take their neighbours into consideration."