A SKIP hire boss saved tipping fees to the tune of almost a quarter of a million pounds, by dumping waste illegally on his farmland, a court heard.

Burnley Crown Court was told how cattle farmer Wayne Bolland, 30, did not have a waste management licence -- but if the household and demolition waste had been properly deposited at a licensed site, it would have cost £205,000.

Judge Raymond Bennett told the defendant he wanted to make sure the mess was sorted out -- but, the court heard, the clean-up operation would be hampered by the foot and mouth crisis.

The judge adjourned the case and sentence until the end of the year.

Bolland admitted two counts of depositing controlled waste without a waste management licence and one of keeping controlled waste, on or before June 1998. He was remanded on bail.

Miss Ruth Stockley, prosecuting for the Environement Agency, said the defendant and his father George owned Dry Clough Farm, Shelfield Lane, SouthfIeld, Nelson. The father owned a skip hire business and Bolland worked for him. That was still operating on the site, which did not have and never had had a waste management licence.