A GOLF club has been fined £7,500 for carrying on with unauthorised landscaping work after it was told to stop.

Lords Golf Club in Rayleigh landed the fine for breaking an Essex County Council stop notice which blocked the club from continuing to import and deposit waste material as it remodelled part of the golf course.

Derek Govey, the 47-year-old director of the club, who lives in Rectory Lane, Battlesbridge, appeared at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court yesterday and pleaded guilty on behalf of the club.

The club, in Hullbridge Road, was also ordered to pay £750 court costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

Chairman of the Bench, Jill Stuchfield, said: “This is a serious offence. We regard this as a breach of the law.

“We believe there was some financial motive. It was cheaper to import this material rather than buy new top soil. But there was no real harm to the public.”

Ladi La Peite, prosecuting, said the county council had given the club three days to stop the work, on October 6 last year.

However, when council officer Tony Sullivan went back to the site on October 20, he saw the work was still going on.

Mr La Peite also said the club had carried on building a road on the site without authorisation, which was used to transport the waste.

Parminder Panesar, mitigating, said: “Mr Govey purchased the club some years ago and has been in the process of tidying up the golf club for the members and also for the community and the environment.”

The renovation of the course involved bringing a number of lorry loads of top soil from another Lords Golf Club, in Notley, near Braintree, which is also run by Mr Govey. Mr Panesar said because the soil had not been screened beforehand, the council considered it to be waste.

He said: “The intention was a good one, but because of the technical definition of waste, it’s a breach.”

He added the unauthorised road had been mostly removed in accordance with the council notice and the club would now screen the material used.

He said: “Anything that’s waste will be got rid of.”