A demolition contractor has been ordered to pay £6,000 in fines and legal costs for polluting a brook with diesel fuel and illegally dumping waste.

Andrew Baughan, trading as Banbury Demolition, pleaded guilty to letting up to 100 gallons of fuel leak into the Sor Brook at Twyford Mill, Banbury, on January 12.

Banbury magistrates heard the diesel escaped from a mobile oil tank and got into the brook through a drain.

The pollution produced a film of oil stretching more than 4km down the stream.

Baughan, who trades from Daventry, Northamptonshire, also pleaded guilty to failing to comply with an order to remove waste from land at Twyford Mill, and to burning waste timber without a licence. The court heard Environment Agency officers issued an enforcement notice ordering Baughan to remove a massive pile of waste timber dumped illegally at Twyford Mill.

Despite numerous visits, the pile of timber grew. Baughan was given 60 days to get rid of the timber but failed to do so.

The court heard he also burned an amount of waste timber on land at Byfield, near Banbury, without a licence.

The magistrates ordered Baughan to pay fines totalling £4,500, with costs of £1,500.

Story date: Monday 01 March

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