THE MOTHER of former Yorkshire and national Businesswoman of the Year Jan Fletcher made more than 70 "chilling and disturbing" phone calls in a campaign of hate against her daughter's ex-husband and his family, York Crown Court heard.

On one night alone, Ruby Smith, 65, made 32 long-distance calls between 1am and 3am to North Yorkshire businessman Peter Fletcher, formerly of the Yorkshire-based Fletcher business empire now run by his ex-wife.

Prosecutor Jeremy Hill-Baker said she also targeted Mr Fletcher's son, Nigel, and his future wife, Melissa, during two weeks in which she repeatedly threatened to kill the two men and regularly rang them up at night.

Describing the calls as "chilling and disturbing", he said she had sworn and claimed the two men were "dead", played the National Anthem and made choking sounds to the accompaniment of music.

Judge Peter Baker QC listened to tapes of some of the calls before deferring sentence for six months.

He said he needed psychiatric reports on Smith before deciding her fate. And he warned her that if she made more calls, she faced jail.Smith, of Millfield Drive, Hopeman, Elgin, Scotland, admitted three offences of threats to kill and two of making nuisance calls.

Mitigating, Jonathan Devlin said Jan and Peter Fletcher were going through a particularly acrimonious divorce and Smith had decided to intervene.

But she realised she should not have behaved the way she had.

She had not made any more calls since police arrested her a year ago.

Outside the court, both men described the horror they felt on hearing the tapes and said they were glad she had admitted her crimes.Jan Fletcher has just announced the business group will run a Peugeot franchise in York.

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