An Essex landowner has been handed a suspended eight month prison sentence and ordered to carry out 180 hours unpaid work for allowing an illegal waste site to be run on his farm for years.

The landowner, Mr Roger Frederick Phipps, was also fined £15,000 for breaching two planning enforcement notices.

The prison sentence was suspended for two years and Mr Phipps has been ordered to remove the waste from the farm in four stages by 30 Jan 2014. He was also told to pay a contribution of £20,000 towards prosecution costs.

Michelins Farm in Rayleigh did not have a waste permit nor planning permission to operate the site, Chelmsford Crown Court heard on Tuesday (January 29).

The site was run without an environmental permit from April 2008-11.