He once ran a successful business in Wisbech but when Kevin Scott moved to an old wartime airfield deep in the Fens – and didn’t bother with permits- the Environment Agency was soon onto him.

For 18 months they warned him to stop storing waste vehicles at Jubilee Farm, Southery Road, Feltwell, without first obtaining a licence.

Mrs Miriam Tordoff prosecuting told King’s Lynn magistrates: “There was a flagrant disregard for the law. Scott was fully aware of the law in relation to waste permitting as he had previously operated a permitted site near Wisbech”.

Stock piling the waste vehicles stored without a permit cost Scott, 52, of Lynn Road, Stoke Ferry, and a £10,600 fine on top of which he was ordered to pay costs of £4,000.

Mrs Tordoff said officers had given Scott several opportunities to comply with the law by either clearing the site or making it fit for the purpose for which he was using it and applying for a permit. Permit and infrastructure costs would have been over £10,000.

To comply, the site would have needed concreted areas with sealed drainage to prevent fluids soaking into the ground, a fire prevention plan, spillage collection facilities and weatherproof containers to store lead acid batteries. It had none of those in place.

The court heard that not only waste vehicles were found at the site but also metal, waste electrical equipment, upvc window frames, lawnmowers and caravans. It was evident that vehicles were being dismantled there. On one visit there was also evidence of a fire.

Scott told officers he rented the land intending to start a recycling centre for cars and plastics but hadn’t started yet, although admitted he had been taking fluids out of vehicles. He said he believed the site already had a permit but admitted he hadn’t checked. He said he had been unable to do very much at the site as he had injured his thumb.

Scott cleared the waste vehicles from the site this month.

After the hearing environment officer Rachel Flanagan said: “In this case the operator knew exactly what he should have in place on a vehicle dismantling site to comply with the law and protect the environment, but chose to undercut legitimate business and risk damaging the environment to save himself money.

“Cutting corners in this way does not pay.”