Hostile neighbour Rachel Stroud was given a three-year ASBO on Tuesday, for continually harassing staff from Trowbridge’s EJ Shanley and Son.

The unemployed 46-year-old, of Helens Court in Shails Lane, Trowbridge, was given the order following a two-day hearing at North West Wiltshire Magistrates’ Court, in Chippenham.

Stroud, whose first-floor flat overlooks EJ Shanley and Son’s scrapyard, claimed the business works outside its permitted operating hours.

The court heard she put offensive signs in her windows, verbally abused staff, regularly made vulgar hand gestures to them and, on January 21, hurled an empty can of beans at a JCB she claimed was driving at her flat.

“A JCB was being driven at speed, directly towards my kitchen window, and I was alarmed and I wanted it to stop. I was scared and I didn’t intend to hit it,” said Stroud, who has lived in Helens Court since 1989.

“I’m in their way. They want to be able to do whatever they want and I want to get it stopped and they just want to shut me up.”

The court heard that Stroud first experienced problems with the yard in March 2011 and had reported the firm to Wiltshire Police, Wiltshire Council and the Environment Agency. Following complaints from EJ Shanley and Son about Stroud’s behaviour, she signed an acceptable behaviour contract last year, which the court found she breached on several occasions.

Stroud was convicted of harassment against a Helens Court neighbour in August 2011 and the court also heard from other residents concerned about her behaviour.

“This is the way you operate; you target people and you harass them,” said Peter Saville, prosecuting. “The bottom line is that you can’t control your behaviour.”

The conditions of Stroud’s ASBO is that she does not use threatening language, offensive gestures, throw liquids or objects towards EJ Shanley and Son’s staff, residents and/or visitors to Helens Court. She also is not allowed to put up offensive signs in Helens Court’s windows. If she breaches the conditions of her ASBO she could face a prison sentence.

Presiding magistrate Michael Leighfield said: “We have found that you have acted in an anti-social manner and people and property need protecting from you.”

EJ Shanley and Son insists it works within its licence and says it now wants to move on from the case. Antoinette Pullen, the EJ Shanley and Son operations manager, said: “It is a shame it has come to this, but hopefully this is the last of it.”