A TAVISTOCK director of a mental health charity was ordered to pay compensation, court costs and to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work after admitting to stalking a young woman, who he met in a shop, for three months.

Plymouth Crown Court heard how Nicholas Pennell became obsessed with the 29-year-old.

The 62-year-old director of the charity Mind had only met the victim once at her workplace but then began following her on her way home in his car, the court heard last Friday.

Judge Geoffrey Mercer said 'I am prepared to accept that you had no sinister intent towards this woman.

'You developed an infatuation to the extent of an obsession. It frightened her and caused her real distress.'

Prosecutor Victoria Hoyle said Mr Pennell began stalking the woman as she walked home from a park and ride near Plymouth.

She noticed the same car on a regular basis up to three times a week slowing down as it went past her and then turning around and coming back the opposite way.

Between September 3 and 24 the car did this each day and she changed her route home and later got her grandparents to pick her up and take her home, said the prosecutor.

But still the car followed her and she took the registration number and clocked the driver.

The victim said she was scared and frightened by the attention and felt targeted and said it was 'ruining the quality of her life'.

Mr Pennell, who was chief executive of Plymouth and District Mind until he resigned after his arrest, and who worked in the NHS, said he had seen the woman at work and found her a 'pleasant young woman'.

He said his work was stressful but sometimes boring and he began stalking her to 'brighten up his day' even though he knew it was inappropriate.

He admitted it had been going on for three months but denied slowing down when he passed her in his car.

He told police there was no sexual motive and he had no aspirations to make contact with her.

The court heard that Mr Pennell was 'smitten' with the woman and he was relieved when he was arrested because 'it had become an obsession', said his defence lawyer Garth Richardson.

Mr Richardson said the defendant, of Glanville Road, Tavistock, was receiving therapy and counselling

He said: 'He is still struggling to come to terms with this.'

He said he had a long and happy marriage and a good career but things had become 'stale'.

Mr Richardson said: 'He found her a very attentive enchanting woman and became obsessed. He is mortified she was so adversely affected.'

He was given a community order to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work, pay £1,030 court costs and a token £200 compensation to the victim.

A restraining order banning him from any contact was made without time limit.