Female stalker scratched slur onto lawyer’s £120,000 Mercedes

A female stalker has been handed a restraining order after scratching a slur into a lawyer’s car

A stalker who scratched a slur into a lawyer’s £120,000 Mercedes has been banned from contacting him for 10 years.

Joanne Maxwell, 34, vandalised the luxury sports motor belonging to Diarmid Bruce, 53, and carved a slur on the bonnet.

Maxwell, a disgruntled former client of Bruce, also hurled abuse at lawyer Simon Gilmour, a colleague of Bruce, and pelted him and his car with eggs.

A female staff member was also soaked with an unknown liquid after she turned up at the legal firm’s office in Motherwell, Lanarkshire.

The vendetta initially started after Maxwell was refused access to legal paperwork, but escalated to the point that police were forced to intervene after a staff member was attacked in the street.

During a hearing at Hamilton Sheriff Court, Maxwell, of Motherwell, admitting harassing Bruce between January 2021 and March last year.

Joanne Maxwell engaged in a 14-month stalking campaign against lawyer Diarmid Bruce

Sheriff Ross Macfarlane KC banned Maxwell from contacting Bruce, his colleague Gilmour and two female employees at the firm for 10 years.

She is also banned from entering or loitering near the legal firm’s office in Motherwell.

Maxwell was also ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and put under supervision for three years.

The court heard the damage to the Mercedes cost more than £1,000 to repair.

Maxwell scratched a slur into the lawyer’s car and pelted his colleague with eggs

A legal source said: ‘Maxwell’s behaviour spiralled out of control, and when a staff member was targeted in the street that was the final straw and police were called in.’

‘She could easily have been sent to prison for this but will have to walk a tightrope now she has been given these banning orders.

‘Even the slightest breach could land her in serious trouble with the court again and the message to stay away from these four people has been made very clear to her.’

Sheriff Macfarlane said: ‘All of this is a direct alternative to custody.’

Bruce the Lawyers, which has offices in Motherwell, Airdrie and Glasgow, is one of Scotland’s busiest criminal defence firms.

Bruce declined to comment on the case.

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