Cherie Blair's stepmother admits taking and dumping neighbour's bin

Cherie Blair's stepmother has pleaded guilty to taking and dumping her neighbour's £10 bin in a long standing dispute with her neighbour.

Stephanie Booth, 60, who is the Mayor of Todmorden, was caught on CCTV loading the sand bin into her car before disposing of it at the local tip.

Leeds Magistrates' Court heard that for four years, she and David Morgan who live in adjoining properties in Robinwood Terrace, Todmorden, have been in dispute over land boundaries.

Things came to a head when Mrs Booth - who is the fourth wife of Mrs Blair's father Tony Booth, was caught on Mr Morgan's CCTV loading the bin into her car.

Mr Morgan told the court that problems began after Mrs Booth' extension in the outhouse that they both shared - which had once served as toilets for the terraced properties - was built and she began to move his bins.

The court was told that Mrs Booth's outlet pipe from the extension overhung David Morgan's property who had two bins including a blue sand bin positioned there.

Mr Morgan had refused to move the bins because he claimed they were on his property yet Mrs Booth continued to move them citing that her pipe would get damaged.

Mrs Booth initially denied the offence on December 4, 2014 and the matter was listed for trial.

But after hearing evidence for almost an hour and a half Mrs Booth pleaded guilty to the charge.

She was given an absolute discharge by the district judge.

It will not affect her position as a councillor or mayor and there was no order to pay the £620 prosecution costs.

Giving evidence, Mr Morgan told the court that police and council officers had been involved in the long-running dispute.

He said: "We saw Mrs Booth driving up in her car and lifting the tub into the back of hers and taking it away."

He said that when the bins were moved he "simply moved them back".

Mrs Booth, who is the carer for her husband Tony, 84 who has dementia and chronic heart failure, claimed that she was left with no other option but to move the bins.

But Mr Morgan said he had wanted to "put my bins where I like".

He denied that he had carried out "a campaign of bullying" against Mr and Mrs Booth when it was put to him by defence solicitor Malcolm Nowell.

For the prosecution Mr Robert Campbell told the court: "The dispute is the defendant moving the bin from time to time moving it elsewhere, the complainant putting it back. It culminated in the defendant utterly removing the bin, she was seen on CCTV in the area to load the bin into a car and drive it away, take it to the local scrap yard."