A demolition contractor has narrowly escaped being jailed for pollution offences.

William Reidy was warned by Judge Roger Scott that there was "every probability" he would go to prison.

But a different judge decided yesterday that he should do 200 hours work for the community and pay £29,000 towards Court costs. He also faces a bill of £25,000 for his own defence costs.

Reidy, 55, of Bolton Old Hall, Wrose, had pleaded guilty to causing poisonous, noxious or polluting material to enter controlled waters. He had also been convicted of illegally depositing and disposing of waste on another occasion.

Tahir Khan, prosecuting, told Bradford Crown Court that in 1998 Reidy's company was hired to demolish premises in Northallerton.

The waste should have been taken to a licensed site, but it was taken to land surrounding Reidy's then-home at Tyersal Hall. Only three months earlier, he had been fined £10,000 by the city's magistrates for depositing waste on the same land.

The Environment Agency found that timber, plastic and scrap metal had been dumped there. Reidy was sent a letter warning that he was committing an offence and he was given 14 days to remove the waste.

His solicitors contacted the agency stating that the waste was being stored there to be burned on Bonfire Night, but the agency replied that it did not approve of that.

On November 6, an officer saw that the waste had been reduced to a "smouldering mass" of metal, wood and other matter, said Mr Khan.

Speaking after the hearing, Mr Reidy said he planned to appeal against the costs and community service. "I don't think I have done anything wrong burning on November 5," he said. "Every demolition contractor and skip company saves their materials up for November 5 and burns it, and that's the reason for my appeal."

In 1999 Reidy's firm was engaged in demolishing buildings on the site of the former Haworth Scouring Company at Lees Mill, Haworth, for developers Skipton Properties.

One of the buildings housed three large cylindrical tanks which had been used for storing industrial detergent.

The tanks were virtually empty, but when the building was demolished, residues of the detergent ended up in a culvert. Complaints were received from the public about foam on the surface of the water. An investigation found dead trout and other fish in the stream.

Last April, Skipton Properties was fined £20,000 with £1,500 costs after admitting its part in the incident.

Imposing a community punishment order, Judge Angela Finnerty told Reidy: "You knew, or should have known, what was required of you in the disposal of waste material."

Ian Cowie, of the Environment Agency, said: "Environmental laws are in force to protect not only our environment but the public too and anyone found breaking them faces being prosecuted by the Agency," he said.