A demolition contractor has been landed with a bill for £13,000 after complaints from the public sparked a 12-month investigation by the Environment Agency.

The painstaking inquiry, which included aerial photography and undercover surveillance, ended at Bradford Magistrates Court yesterday when 50-year-old William Reidy was fined £10,000 with £3,000 costs for offences under the Environmental Protection Act.

Reidy was caught on camera setting light to a pile of timber on land at his home in Tyersal Lane, Bradford, last July and the court heard that he also disposed of hardcore rubble by using it to build a track around a field.

Prosecutor David Booth told the court that Reidy had admitted seven offences relating to the unlicensed disposal of controlled waste.

"This legislation is to control the disposal of industrial or commercial waste so that it is done in a controlled fashion,'' said Mr Stott. "If that does not happen it escapes and environmental harm or damage can be done.''

Mr Stott said it was the agency's case that Reidy, who had no previous convictions, generated waste through his demolition business and instead of disposing of it at landfill sites where he would have had to pay a charge, he brought it back to his home and either concealed it or got rid of it. He said the agency received about 30 complaints about activities on the land, particularly fires, and Reidy had ignored agency warnings to stop.

The agency estimated that Reidy had saved about £10,000 in charges for disposing of the wood and other material, but that figure was disputed by his solicitor Graham Gouldsborough.

He said his client had been using the hardcore for the track and described the wood that was burned as "clean wood'' which was not giving off any kind of toxic smoke.

Mr Gouldsborough said Reidy conceded that in July last year he had set fire to a quantity of wood out of commercial necessity, but he produced a bundle of receipts to the court to show that his client did use properly licensed waste sites.

But chairman of the bench Donald Mattinson told Reidy: "We feel there has been some financial gain.''

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