A CREWE plant hire firm and a farmer were fined a total of £22,000 after admitting waste offences.

T W Frizell (Haulage and Plant Hire) Limited, of Gresty Road, Crewe, was fined £20,000 after pleading guilty at Crewe Magistrates Court to four offences.

Farmer Rigby Williamson, of Hack House Farm, Nantwich, was fined £2,000 after pleading guilty to one offence.

They were also each ordered to pay costs of £1,769.70.

Estelle Palin, prosecuting, told the court on Friday that Environment Agency investigations had revealed that T W Frizell had dumped construction, demolition and excavation waste on two sites in Cheshire, one of which was farm land off Coole Lane, Nantwich, part-owned by Williamson.

T W Frizell, run by Trevor Frizell, had charged the owners of both sites for 'topsoil' to be used for landscaping and infilling. However, she said, the waste dumped was clearly unsuitable and as well as soil included bricks, concrete, plastics, wood, kerb stones, metals, pipes and carpet underlay, posing a potential threat to the environment.

The prosecution said at the first site the landowner had paid for clean, uncontaminated topsoil and was unaware that the company had tipped material including general construction and demolition waste on his land.

However, Williamson admitted that he had checked the waste when it arrived at his farm, and had known what kind of material it contained.

Miss Palin said about 2,500 tons of the material was tipped at William-son's farmland, which runs alongside the River Weaver. The agency was concerned that it had been tipped to the edge of the river bank even though the land is in a floodplain.

Although T W Frizell Ltd claimed the material was not waste, transfer notes completed when it had been taken away from one construction site defined it as 'builder's demolition rubble - soils and subsoils'.

Miss Palin told the court T W Frizell would have saved money by avoiding legitimate waste disposal.

The court also heard that Williamson had entered into an agreement with the agency to remove the material, restoring the land so that the floodplain is not interfered with, and restoring the agency's access to the river bank to carry out environmental work.