A WOMAN racially abused her neighbour following a misunderstanding over beach huts at a block of holiday flats in Sandbanks, a court heard.

Susan Dean, 71, a full-time resident at Shoreacres, claimed she was made to feel unwelcome by the second home owners of the other £1m apartments after she moved last October.

A court heard she fell out with Allan Rich, her neighbour and chairman of the management committee for the block of flats, following a misunderstanding over their adjoining beach huts which come with the seaside property.

She claimed she felt bullied by Mr Rich, a former CEO of a media advertising company, and left him an anonymous note outside his flat in which she made an anti-semitic remark.

Three days later on July 6 she left another unsigned note on his car in which she told him to leave the country.

She also sent him an email saying she could not attend a communal barbecue because she 'was not Jewish' .

Mr Rich, 74, asked the building's janitor to check the CCTV footage which revealed Dean leaving the block, called Shoreacres on Banks Road, and placing the note on his car.

Her behaviour reduced Mr Rich and his wife Vivienne to tears and made them fearful of going out onto their balcony in case Dean was using hers.

Amy Beddis, prosecuting, told Bournemouth magistrates: "Mr Rich runs the management committee for the block and he thinks that's why she doesn't like him.

"The notes are essentially a hate crime.

"These aren't off the cuff handwritten notes, they are typed up notes that were then placed in strategic places and they clearly caused the aggrieved a lot of distress."

In a statement appealing for magistrates to impose a restraining order on Dean, Mr Rich said: "Susan Dean joined our small community in October 2015, she is the only full-time resident.

"Her religious hate is causing me and my family great sadness. I have never had to deal with such a horrible situation in my whole life.

"I can no longer go out on my balcony because she will shout abuse.

"When we received the first note my wife and I could not sleep that night. We were both led to tears.

"I'm not sure why anyone would want to do it or how they could be so vile.

"I felt physically sick when I saw the note on my car.

"I no longer wanted to stay. I do not want to be abused at my own home, my wife doesn't feel safe coming down with other family members and I do not feel safe for my wife to be there alone.

"I just want to be able to attend my holiday home without worrying about my safety."

Dean, said to be a lady of good character who is a volunteer for the National Trust on Brownsea Island and at an Oxfam shop, pleaded guilty to racially/religiously aggravated harassment by words/writing.

Debra Scudamore, defending, said the tension with Mr Rich had started over a misunderstanding about a beach hut and escalated.

She said: "The property comes with a beach hut but there was an issue with the key and it turned out she had gone to the wrong beach hut. That's when things started going awry.

"Mr Rich was the chairman of the committee of the flats and straight away Mrs Dean was made to feel she wasn't wanted in the flat.

"Most of them are holiday homes and she felt ostracised. Things built up, she felt she couldn't go to her beach hut because his family and friends were taking up her space.

"There are two sides to every story, this was not just this lady taking a dislike to a particular man. She felt bullied by him.

"But she accepts what she did was wrong and apologises for her behaviour.

"She was suffering with ill health at the time and had high blood pressure and this feeling of not being welcome got the better of her."

Dean was given a restraining order preventing her from having any contact with Mr Rich, his wife or their son Jason, who often visits the flat, for two years.

She was also given a £300 fine and ordered to pay £115 costs.

Note: The National Trust says Mrs Dean stopped volunteering for them in 2014.