A Sandys man was yesterday found not guilty of breaching a restraining order brought against him by his ex-girlfriend.

However he left Magistrates' Court with a stern warning ringing in his ears from Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner about the seriousness of this type of order.

The plaintiff enacted a temporary restraining order against the defendant after their relationship ran into problems after four to five months. Neither can be named for legal reasons.

The plaintiff said she drove by the defendant while he was working on a church in the vicinity of the People's Pharmacy in Hamilton on April 6 at 10 a.m.

She said she parked on Victoria Street opposite the People's Pharmacy and went into the Liberty Theatre for about thirty minutes. As she left she saw the defendant nearby.

She claimed the defendant pointed at her and shouted something but she did not hear it.

At noon that day, she continued, she returned to the Liberty Theatre and parked her car on Victoria Street opposite the People's Pharmacy.

When she returned to her car the defendant saw her and took a diagonal course across the road toward her, she said, and stopped about 20 feet away from her.

She said she felt intimidated as a result of the manner in which the defendant was looking at her.

The defendant told the Court that he saw the plaintiff drive past him around 10 a.m. and decided against going to the People's Pharmacy to get some junk food in view of the restraining order against him.

Around noon he decided to go to the pharmacy and, as he crossed the road at the junction of Victoria and Union Streets, he noticed the plaintiff's vehicle was parked with her beside it on Victoria Street.

He went into the People's Pharmacy and then the Ex-Artillerymen's Club to buy some lunch.

They were not quite ready to serve lunch so he went back to his job site where he stood outside with his co-workers, and shortly after, the plaintiff drove by, and that was the last he saw of her, he said.

He did not deny that he was closer to the woman than the fifty yards allowed by the restraining order, but dismissed the idea that he should have gone to another establishment to get his lunch.

Mr. Warner acknowledged that Bermuda was a small place and people were bound to run into each other so it was unrealistic to avoid an area in which someone may or may not be.

He added that it was clear that the defendant was working in the area and the plaintiff was visiting the area so it was a case of the two running into each other.

The defendant was then acquitted of the charge of deliberately breaching a restraining order and received some gratuitous advice from Mr. Warner.

He said the order was still in place and to stay away from the woman and do not harass her.

"If you breach these orders, I will lock you up,'' Mr. Warner warned.