A former director of a Bradford demolition company has been fined £5,000 for allowing 2,000 tonnes of waste to be dumped illegally.

Bradford Crown Court heard how huge quantities of rubble were tipped on farmland at North Rigton near Harrogate over a period of days without a waste management licence.

Clive Jones ordered a number of lorries to deliver uncontaminated waste to the land when the tenant of the property agreed to have some of it moved from a demolition site in Harrogate, prosecutor Tahir Khan said.

But he added that over a period of days substantial amounts of mixed waste was taken to the property without the permission of the occupier.

"He was no doubt shocked and surprised to see the huge piles of mixed waste that had found their way onto his land,'' Mr Khan told the court.

He also said it was much more than the tenant wanted to be brought onto the land and not the type of material he asked for, said Mr Khan.

Jones, 39, of Brantwood Drive, Haworth Road, Bradford, pleaded guilty to five offences of causing the unlawful disposal of controlled waste on land.

He also admitted causing the unlawful treatment of waste on the land. He was ordered to pay £800 costs.

Mitigating, David Kelly said that Jones had later removed all the waste from the farmland and restored it to its previous condition.

He told the court that Jones had been in financial difficulty and was under pressure to remove the waste from the demolition site.

"As a result of the whole sorry enterprise he has lost his company,'' Mr Kelly said.

Recorder P Armstrong said that Jones had cut corners in the way he disposed of the waste.

"It's a matter of concern to the courts because it affects the environment and it's a dishonest way of going about business," he said.

Jones, who was a director of Premier Demolition, was banned from becoming a company director for two years.

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