Besotted Co-op worker hired PI to spy on boss and tracked his car

Besotted Co-op store supervisor hired private detective to spy on her boss by planting tracker on his car after she became infatuated with him

• Laura Dolman would loiter near her victim’s home to keep tabs on him

A besotted Co-op store supervisor hired a private detective to spy on her boss after she became infatuated with him and even planted a tracking device on his car to monitor his movements. 

Laura Dolman, 33, paid the investigator to stalk father-of-three Marc Klaver’s car to find out where he lived after he had earlier rebuffed her advances. 

Dolman had developed ‘romantic feelings’ for Mr Klaver, who was manager at the Co-op supermarket in Haslington, near Crewe, Cheshire, where she worked as a team leader, a court heard.

She would loiter near his home in her silver Skoda car and keep close tabs on Mr Klaver at all hours. 

The victim, who is his 30s, eventually left the Co-op to take up a new post with rival supermarket Morrisons to get away from his unwanted admirer.

Laura Dolman admitted stalking after she developed romantic feelings for her boss which were not reciprocated 

Marc Klaver became increasingly concerned after he began to notice Ms Dolman’s car was constantly in his vicinity 

But he became increasingly concerned at seeing Dolman’s car parked up in Weston, the village where he lived. He subsequently learnt she had been tracking him after she accosted him in the street and admitted hiring a private eye to place the tracker device on his vehicle to keep him under surveillance.

Police who investigated Dolman discovered she had also been sending love letters to Mr Klaver and had been messaging his ex-wife.

At Chester Magistrates’ Court, Dolman pleaded guilty to stalking involving serious alarm or distress.

The charge states that between August 2021 and April last year she placed a tracker on her victim’s vehicle, approached him in the street, made unsolicited voicemails, messages and calls, and that her stalking caused Mr Klaver ‘serious alarm or distress and had a substantial adverse effect on his usual day-to-day activities’.

Andrew Madden, prosecuting, said both parties were working for the Co-op in Haslington.

‘Mr Klaver was the store manager and Miss Dolman arrived as a team leader in November 2020,’ Mr Madden said. ‘The relationship began as professional, they were work colleagues, but there was a change when she made her feelings known that she wanted a relationship with him.

‘He said he did not feel the same way and he advised he would contact the area manager to look at a move to prevent any further issues. He left the Co-op in September 2021.

‘But in November he started to see Miss Dolman’s Silver Skoda in the same area as himself. He was concerned about that because he had moved to a new address and was taking a new route to work. He was also parking away from his address.’

Mr Klaver eventually left his job at the Co-op to take up a role at Morrisons due to the stalking 

Mr Madden said that on a day in the following April, Mr Klaver was walking outside with his son when Ms Dolman pulled up alongside and said that she needed to talk to him.

‘She said that she placed a tracker on his vehicle,’ the prosecutor said. ‘He believed that was a ploy to get his attention so he ignored it. ‘But she left voice messages on his phone and made it known that she had hired a detective private investigator to obtain a tracker. She stated that she was going to remove the tracker from his vehicle. Also in April, he received some handwritten letters from her. His ex-wife also received a letter from her.

‘She was interviewed in relation to the matters. She said they met at work and felt that they had a lot in common. They had grown up in the same town and had gone to the same school.

‘She said they became friends quickly, and that she put her trust in the victim very quickly. She claimed that he felt the same way about her at times. She admitted that she’d hired a private investigator to place a tracker on his vehicle.’

Dolman will be sentenced later. 

Her solicitor Stuart Flood said: ‘This was not all in one way by any stretch of the imagination although she acknowledges her behaviour would amount to stalking and she acknowledges that with her prompt guilty plea.

‘She has no previous matters on record. Given the nature of the charge, I would think that a report would benefit the court before sentencing.’

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