A 63-YEAR-old Clitheroe woman bombarded her former friend with nuisance phone calls over an 18-month period.

Blackburn magistrates heard that in one five-day period more than 120 calls were made and on another occasion the line was blocked by calls for five-and-a-half hours.

The court was told it was a bizarre ending to a 12-year relationship which had been fraught with mistrust and jealousy.

Sylvia Almonti, of York Street, Clitheroe, a former landlady at the Shireburn Arms, was dealt with in her absence for an offence of persistently using the telecommunication system to cause annoyance, inconvenience and needless anxiety to Catherine Burn on various dates between May 31, 1998 and November 24, 1999.

She was fined £100 with £50 costs and given 14 days to pay.

Lisa Worsley, prosecuting, told how the recent events had a complex history which went back to 1988 when Miss Burn ran a group called Discuss, where she taught Spanish and creative writing.

In 1989 Rocco Almonti, Sylvia's husband, approached and offered to take over the Spanish classes.

Mr Almonti and Miss Burn both attended a party and a couple of days after Mr Rocco sent a bouquet of flowers to the party holder to say thank you. "He paid for the flowers using a credit card and when Mrs Almonti discovered this she thought the flowers were for Miss Burn," said Ms Worsley.

Shortly after, Sylvia Almonti enrolled on a cookery course at the same centre where Miss Burn's group met and after she discovered that Miss Burn was gay they became friends and Miss Burn often went to the family home for meals and socialising.

Miss Burn was dismissed from Discuss in 1990 and returned to Spain in 1991. She returned three years later and, after reading in the paper that Mr Rocco Almonti had died, rang to express her sympathy.

In 1997 Miss Burn had two cats shot by youths and Mrs Almonti wrote to say how sorry she was. After that the two got in touch and began socialising but the friendship fizzled out in 1998 and shortly after Miss Burn started to receive nuisance calls from Almonti, who was always drunk.

"She accused Miss Burn of all kinds of things including stealing from her house and from charity boxes and damaging an oil painting," said Ms Worsley.

"besides leaving messages on the answer phone she also spoke to Miss Burn and between November 16 and 21 she received 120 calls from Sylvia Almonti, who wanted to know why Miss Burn had been in her house while she was in hospital, saying she had no right to be there.

In fact, Miss Burn had been invited to the house by Mrs Almonti's brother, John Sykes, who was staying there."

She said Miss Burn is a registered disabled lady who had suffered greatly as a result of the calls. Mrs Almonti had been warned by the police on several occasions but had not stopped making the calls and in the end a summons had been issued.