a tax inspector began illegally snooping on her neighbour's finances during a seven year argument over the location of a drainpipe denise freeman abused her position at hm revenue and customs to pry into the tax affairs of her neighbours garrie conway and flo couper, a court heard the row began after denise and her husband alasdair built an extension on to their house in invergowrie, perth and kinross, and a building inspector ruled that a drainpipe on the neighbouring property came too close to the glass the row began after denise freeman and husband alasdair (right) built an extension on their house in invergowrie, perth and kinross, but an inspector ruled the neighbour's drainpipe passed too close to it  freeman used her job at hmrc to conduct an illegal investigation into garrie conway (pictured) after hearing he had a second job as a taxi driver and convincing herself that he was not declaring the income  the freemans asked mr conway and ms couper to remove the pipe, and eventually sent them a lawyer's letter falsely claiming they had permission to move it themselves when mr conway and ms couper went away on holiday for a weekend they returned to find that the freemans had paid a building firm to relocate the pipe soon afterwards mr conway said he became concerned that freeman seemed to know a lot about his tax affairs, and informed the authorities perth sheriff court heard that she began looking into his finances after hearing that he drove a taxi in addition to claiming benefits, and was trying to prove he hadn't declared the extra income she said she wanted to investigate personally because the arrival of the coalition government had changed the culture at the tax office and they were not handing out money as freely as before she added: 'i accessed the computer files i was looking to see whether mr conway had declared a second job 'you would have to declare any change in circumstances to the tax credits office, to hmrc my question was whether he had a second job he was not declaring mr conway said he went away on holiday for the weekend, but when he returned to his house (pictured), he found the freemans had paid workmen to move the pipe without his permission  'i was specifically looking at the income page i reported he had a second job 'if i think someone is committing tax fraud and i report them i don’t think i’m committing a crime he made so many false complaints that people said why don’t you do something 'i even had people saying they would sort him out for me i know what i did was wrong' freeman kept the details of what she was doing a secret from her bosses at hmrc, and when police initially questioned her she denied the offences but she later changed her plea, saying: 'i attempted to get out of it in a blind panic 'i couldn’t say to them the real reason i did, so i probably just made up a whole load of nonsense 'i didn’t access it for tittle tattle or gossip i accessed it because someone told me he was committing fraud i didn’t do it for a wee nosey i discussed it with no one' sheriff michael fletcher found her guilty of repeatedly making unauthorised access to the couple’s tax records without lawful reason at hmrc  between 26 september and 28 october 2011 the freemans' two storey extension is seen from the road running beside their house mr conway branded the couple 'neighbours from hell' following their seven year argument  an aerial view of the property reveals the large extension reaches all the way to the end of mr conway's garden he said he has a folder of letters from the freemans complaining about weeds and hedge trimming  freeman was fined £600, while the court was also told that she has left her job at hmrc after an internal investigation outside court, dayshift manager mr conway, 48, said: 'for years and years i had said to flo that i was suspicious that she had been looking at our tax records 'we got a folder full of letters from the freemans, about weeds, cutting a hedge i always suspected she checked our records to see if we could afford to defend a civil case 'after they took the pipe down she drove past and made a rude gesture we had had hell from her and i decided that was the day i was going to call hmrc 'basically, they were neighbours from hell we never went on holiday for five years because of them we have moved away now 'the thing is, we never even put the downpipe up   it was there when we bought the property' speaking to mailonline, freeman said she is appealing her conviction, says she stands by her research into mr conway and refutes his allegations that she made rude gestures at him
denise alasdair freeman freemans garrie conway flo couper conway 600 perth sheriff's court
row started after denise and alasdair freeman built house extension . inspector ruled drainpipe of neighbouring property passed too close to it . freemans got into argument with garrie conway and flo couper over pipe . denise used hmrc job to secretly pry into the tax affairs of mr conway . was fired after work investigation and fined £600 by perth sheriff's court 