A mother-of-two was arrested and held in a police cell for six hours after pruning overhanging branches from a neighbour’s tree.
Karen Gaynor was detained, charged with criminal damage and spent seven months on bail after prosecutors decided she had cut the conifer back too much.
Rotherham Magistrates’ Court took just 15 minutes to clear the 53-year-old after instead deciding she had acted with good intentions.
Speaking after her trial, she said she was “disgusted” at her treatment by the police and council.
Ms Gaynor said: “I’m delighted and relieved with the result but disgusted at how I have been treated.”
She added that after the child sex abuse scandal which has struck Rotherham in recent months, “to think that the police and council have the time, money and resources to waste on such a silly thing as a tree, is disgusting.”
The court heard how council officials had told Ms Gaynor that she could trim the tree near her home in Rotherham but physically refused to show her how much.
However, the prosecution then told of how her pruning of the tree ‘went way beyond the lawful excuse’ and caused ‘unnecessary damage’.
Adam Walker, prosecuting, said: “In July 2014, Alan Hepinstall, a council mediator, visited Ms Gaynor’s home.
“Mr Hepinstall told Ms Gaynor she could cut overhanging branches back vertically and in line with the boundary but did not show the defendant what he meant.
“There remains one disputed issue of fact and that’s the state of the tree before it was pruned.”
Neighbour Mrs Daye then told the court that before the tree had been cut last September, it was in a good condition but after she pruned it, “it was terrible, all chopped back and dead.”
Ms Gaynor went voluntarily to Main Street police station in Rotherham following the complaint of criminal damage but said she had been reassured she would not be arrested.
She added: “I didn’t have a solicitor with me so I feel I was coaxed in.
“I went into the interview and the police read me my rights. I told them I could not understand what ‘rights’ meant. Then the officer slammed his book shut and said: ‘Right, I am now going to arrest you”.
A South Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said the council had provided them with a statement that demonstrated that permission was not granted for the tree to be cut.