A WOMAN who made life intolerable for neighbours in a York street has been ordered to leave her home.

A court evicted Diane Lambert after two years of trouble, including an incident in which her friend Sharon Howes was set on fire by an unknown person in Miss Lambert's garden late at night.

Neighbour Denise Crossley told York County Court she had also seen Miss Lambert and two youths smashing up a car near her home.

Families in Foxwood Lane, York, recorded 74 occasions when the household or its visitors caused a nuisance by playing loud music or shouting and swearing between June 2000 and October 2001, often into the early hours.

Miss Lambert, in evidence, strongly denied being a nuisance. She claimed that the problem in the street was her neighbours "sticking knives in her back".

But Judge Trevor Kent Jones said the noise was so bad it stopped next-door neighbours getting a proper night's sleep, made them ill and affected their work.

Ordering her immediate eviction from her council house, Judge Trevor Kent Jones said Miss Lambert's behaviour had already forced one neighbour to leave and if she stayed, those living either side of her would also leave if they could.

"It seems it has been and would be intolerable if the situation were to continue," said the judge.

It was the second time the City of York Council had taken Miss Lambert to court. It had already won an injunction against her which failed to stop the nuisance.

Businesswoman Mrs Crossley, firefighter Tony Pemberton, and Terry Feetenby, who all lived in the same four-house terrace as Miss Lambert, gave evidence against her. They said other residents had also been affected by Miss Lambert's behaviour, but were too scared to come forward.

Miss Lambert she had nothing to do with the burning of Miss Howes, whom she had left drinking downstairs with friends while she went to bed on September 4.

She suggested that if there was any noise disturbance it was normal child noise, her trying to control her three children, or her ex-partner. The judge rejected her suggestions.

City of York Council asked the court to evict Miss Lambert after she ignored repeated warning letters.

Updated: 11:52 Wednesday, January 16, 2002