A LANDOWNER who repeatedly flouted orders banning him from dumping waste in a village pit has been ordered to pay more than £8,000 in costs and fines.

Paul Fenton, who lived in Flowton, near Needham Market, before moving to Bulgaria last year, admitted five offences of breaching an enforcement notice and five offences of contravening a stop notice in relation to the pit.

At a sentencing hearing at Ipswich Crown Court yesterday Fenton was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £3,712.

He was also made the subject of an Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) for five years.

At an earlier hearing Alison Lambert, prosecuting, said Suffolk County Council had issued an enforcement notice and a stop notice in 2000 requiring Fenton and his former wife Susan Fenton to stop dumping waste material on the land in Flowton.

Since then Paul Fenton had appeared in court on three occasions in 2001, 2007 and 2010 for breaching the orders. In 2010 he was fined and ordered to pay costs of £35,000 after admitting 10 offences.

He had also been made the subject of a two-year ASBO banning him from undertaking waste management or disposal activities at the site without planning permission or a licence.

Miss Lambert said in February last year a council monitoring and enforcement officer had visited the site and discovered a pile of brick and concrete rubble behind locked gates as well as a pile of mixed materials. The officer also noticed a tipper truck on the site containing further brick and concrete.

On March 14 the officer noticed three new piles of waste and saw a tipper truck dump more concrete and rubble.

During another visit on March 28 he saw more brick and concrete had been deposited.

Miss Lambert said the total cost of legally depositing the waste found at the site would have been £9,500.

She said Susan Fenton, who has been separated from her husband for two years, had appeared before magistrates and had admitted 10 breaches and had been fined £3,000.

Fenton told the court he had not run a business in the UK since he was given the ASBO in 2010 and had been trying to sell the land.

He said he had no knowledge of the recent tipping but had paid for someone to remove the rubble when he found out about it.