Susann Mary Sharpe sentenced after Bororen neighbour dispute

A woman operating a cafe near the site of a chemical explosion that blew a hole in the Bruce Hwy, had been “so traumatised” by an ongoing dispute with a man running a business next door, that she lost her cool and ended up in court.

The Big Giraffe Cafe on the Bruce Highway at Bororen in Central Queensland.

A Central Queensland cafe operator who lost her cool during an ongoing dispute with a man running a business next door, has faced court after she took matters into her own hands.

Susann Mary Sharpe, 54, pleaded guilty in Gladstone Magistrates Court to one count of wilful damage.

The court heard that Sharpe operated The Big Giraffe Cafe at Bororen and the victim ran the neighbouring Red Rocket Diner, and that both were dual business and residential properties.

Both businesses are situated on the Bruce Highway in Central Queensland, just south of the site of a chemical explosion which blew a hole in the highway on August 30.

In court, police prosecutor Senior Constable Jessica McLaren said there was a permanent fence along the front boundary line of the properties between the two cafes.

“However at the rear of the properties, the boundary lines are only conveyed by surveyor pegs,” Snr Const McLaren said.

The prosecutor said between 10am and 11am on June 24, Sharpe approached the front boundary fence and removed two signs from the Red Rocket Diner.

The Red Rocket Diner on the Bruce Highway at Bororen in Central Queensland.

“Those signs were located on what she says were her side of the fence,” Snr Const McLaren said.

“The signs were attached to the fence with metal screws and (Sharpe) removed them by pulling them straight off the fence, causing damage to both of those signs.”

Snr Const McLaren said Sharpe then “threw those signs over the fence” into the victim’s yard where they landed in a garden bed.

“A witness who was working at the Red Rocket cafe heard the disturbance from the other side, and heard banging noises, and then observed the fence to be pushed backwards and forwards before the signs were thrown over the fence.”

The court heard on the same day, police attended and saw the damaged signs in the garden bed.

Snr Const McLaren said when police spoke to Sharpe, she made full admissions to damaging the signs and she said she had done so after returning from the police station where she “reported a separate incident in relation to the victim.”

“(Sharpe said) when she had arrived home she found herself so mad at the situation, that she saw the signs for the neighbour’s cafe and wanted them gone.

“She confirmed she removed the signs by ripping them off the fence, which did damage them, before she threw them back over onto the neighbour’s side.”

The Big Giraffe Cafe (left) and the Red Rocket Diner on the Bruce Highway at Bororen.

Snr Const McLaren said police spoke to Sharpe about restitution and she said she “would have to sort that out in court.”

The prosecution sought $250 restitution.

The court heard Sharpe had a one-page criminal history which was “dated”.

Solicitor Caitlin Dee said Sharpe had been co-operative with police and entered an early plea.

Ms Dee said there had been an “ongoing, long dispute way before” Sharpe got involved in The Big Giraffe Cafe “about ownership, and jealousy, and profits as the victim has an interest in The Big Giraffe.”

“She (Sharpe) is so traumatised, that she’s trying... to get out of the lease to have nothing to do with this man.”

“She just wants to get away.”

On July 30, Magistrate Mary Buchanan fined Sharpe $250 and ordered she pay $250 restitution.

No conviction was recorded.