A DROITWICH man who was running an illegal garage from his home in the town, has been ordered to pay a fine and court costs totalling £700 after he was prosecuted by Wychavon District Council.

Martin Knight, 34, of Pilgrim Road in Droitwich Spa, pleaded guilty to Worcester magistrates on April 30, to the charge of breaching an enforcement notice banning him from carrying out vehicle repairs and maintenance from the property for commercial gain.

He had originally been ordered to stop using his home as a garage in November 2008 following complaints, and initially he complied with the enforcement notice, but the council began receiving further complaints in February 2009, which continued to come in on a regular basis.

Activity temporarily halted at the premises after warning letters were sent by the council, but further detailed information was given to the council last year showing that 27 vehicles were worked on by Knight’s ‘garage’ between June 22 and August 8 2014.

Knight claimed that all the vehicles being worked on belonged to family members, and that he was making no financial gain from the work, but further investigations revealed that while one of the vehicles was registered to Pilgrim Road, the others had no registered keeper, were registered to people at other addresses, or did not match the make or model listed on DVLA records.

The case was brought before the courts in November last year, and Knight pleaded not guilty, saying that he would produce log books for the vehicles to prove they were registered to Pilgrim Road, before claiming that the log books had not been updated because the vehicle details had been swapped online, and finally, when council investigators contacted the website and discovered Knight had only used it to deal in car parts, he failed to produce details of the swapping logs.

At that point Knight changed his plea, admitting breaching the notice by working on seven or eight vehicles during the specified time period, and receiving between £600 and £700 for carrying out minor repairs and maintenance for friends and family.

He was fined £400, a swell as being ordered to pay costs of £250, and a victim surcharge of £15, at the rate of £60 a month.

In sentencing Knight, deputy district judge James Tindal told him that even though he had only admitted breaching the notice on a limited basis it was still a serious matter. He added that Knight’s actions had been deliberate, disruptive and disrespectful and warned he would be more severely punished if he resumed his illegal activities again.

Graeme Duerden, development control manager at Wychavon District Council, said: “Although it may not seem serious or significant what Knight was doing, we should not underestimate how the other residents of Pilgrim Road have been adversely affected over the last six years. We hope the action we have taken means they can now return to enjoying the quiet and peaceful environment of their own homes in what is a residential area.”