On Wednesday, 6 August 2003, Mr C was given an 18 month prison sentence for contempt of court for failing to comply with court injunctions.
This follows a long history of planning breaches and enforcement notices in relation to Mr Cs' illegal occupation of agricultural land on several locations throughout the borough.
Mr C has been in disagreement with the Council for many years over the use of land resulting in enforcement orders being made against him. Mr C persistently ignores the enforcement orders and the Council has therefore sought injunctions for compliance through the Court. In October 1999, Mr C was given a sentence of 14 days in prison after refusing to remove a mobile home from his land. He was given a sentence of 3 months for contempt of Court.
Despite these sentences Mr C still did not comply with the injunctions and on Tuesday, 5th August, Mr C was once again found guilty of breach of previous injunctions and was sentenced to nine months imprisonment suspended for two years. As he had a record of breaching planning laws on other sites, a borough-wide injunction to prevent Mr C siting his mobile home on any land without planning permission was also granted with immediate effect.
The borough-wide injunction is an innovative use of planning injunctions as a means of preventing individuals from deliberately and persistently ignoring planning regulations throughout the borough. The Council considered that this would be the most effective way of protecting agricultural land from misuse by Mr C and prevent his continual and flagrant abuse of the planning system.
Mr C immediately indicated to the Court that he did not intend to comply with the Court orders and was deliberately in breach of these by that afternoon. The following morning, Her Honour Judge Bonvin activated the suspended sentence and imposed a further term of nine months to run consecutively.
A spokesman for Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, said, "We had hoped all along that the taking of injunction proceedings (and the consequent threat of imprisonment if injunctions were breached) would be sufficient to persuade Mr C from continually ignoring the planning system. It is very sad that this did not prove to be the case and that this has ended with a lengthy prison term. Mr C has been in breach of planning regulations at several locations throughout the borough for many, many years and has always been fully aware that he has been breaking the law. The occupation and use of land has to comply with Council policy which is carefully set out for the benefit of all. We have a duty to all our residents in the borough to ensure that these regulations are complied with."