Man jailed for breaching injunctions over unauthorised use of land

A Dorset man has been imprisoned for four months for contempt of court after he failed to comply with a number of injunction orders over his unauthorised use of land.

Stuart Allen, 53, of no fixed abode and formerly of Keepers Paddock, Middlemarsh, appeared at Salisbury High Court last week (21 November).

Allen through his legal representatives did not challenge the evidence brought by West Dorset District Council.

His Honour Judge Parkes QC at Salisbury High Court found that the district council had proved the breaches against Allen.

These breaches related to Keepers Paddock, Middlemarsh in Dorset. They related to Allen’s residential use of the land, his failure to clear the land of items relating to his unauthorised business, his attempts to deal with his interest in the land and his failure to provide information to the council in relation to such dealings.

The court heard that West Dorset first issued a planning enforcement notice against Allen in 2013, requiring him to cease residential and business use of the land and to remove all items associated with such uses, the only lawful use being agriculture. 

The business use involved the storage, distribution and recycling of vegetable oil and caused contamination and pollution of the land and the land of his neighbours.

Due to Allen’s non-compliance an injunction was applied for and granted on 19 October 2015 requiring compliance with the terms of the enforcement notice.

Allen continued to reside on the land periodically and to store oils and numerous containers of varying sizes associated with his unauthorised business use of the land.

Owing to his failure to clear the land the district council had to take direct action to clear it in June 2016 at a cost of more than £64,000.

Allen made this operation more difficult by digging holes on the land and filling them with oil and human waste, West Dorset said.

Arising from the continuing breach of the injunction, the council commenced committal proceedings against Allen for his contempt of court, which were first before the High Court on 15 December 2016.

Committal proceedings were adjourned twice owing to Allen not being legally represented before they were finally heard on 21 November 2017.

Allen’s legal representative presented as mitigation the fact that Allen was poorly educated and could not read or write.

HHJ Parkes QC accepted this but found that Allen knew what he was required to do and so knowingly disobeyed court orders over a period of two years at significant cost to the council and the public.