A former waitress who plagued her boss with silent and anonymous phone calls has been banned from visiting a tearoom in Hamble.

The order was made when Deborah Watson, 53, returned to Southampton Magistrates' Court to be sentenced. Watson, of Mercury Gardens, Hamble had at a previous hearing changed her plea to guilty and admitted a charge of non-violent harassment.

When Watson left her job at The Village Tea Rooms and Gift Shop at Hamble, little did her boss, Christina Pullen, think that it would prove to be the start of a campaign of harassment which made "her life hell".

Magistrates heard that Watson made dozens of silent calls and sent strange and unnerving text messages.

The court was asked to rule out a prison sentence because she was the sole carer for her 85 year-old mother who has Alzheimer's disease.

After considering reports magistrates made a community service order for Watson to do 150 hours of unpaid work.

Presiding magistrate George Morgan Harris also passed a restraining order, which will be open-ended, and ordered that Watson should not go to the tea rooms at Hamble and should not contact Ms Pullen directly or indirectly.

Watson was also ordered to pay £400 costs and £100 compensation for an unrelated offence of spitting at a police officer.