Drone pictures show the shocking scale of a landowner's dump - which has left taxpayers with a bill of more than £40k following a 10-year battle.

Maidstone council has spent significant sums and almost a decade pursuing Langley Beck over his 14-hectare plot.

The authority started enforcement action in 2014 after it found the land - located in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty - littered with broken vehicles and waste.

Beck was previously described as having a "hoarding disorder" in a parallel contempt of court case, for which he was given a suspended prison sentence."

He was due to be sentenced over his plot in Boxley Woods, to the north of Maidstone in Kent, on Friday (June 5), after being convicted of breaching planning regulations.

But he turned up to the hearing at Maidstone Crown Court unrepresented by a solicitor and asked for a postponement.

He said he was unable to afford representation and was waiting on his application for Universal Credit to come through.

Another hearing has been set, where Beck faces an unlimited financial fine.

Maidstone Borough Council has already spent £43,000 of taxpayers’ money pursuing Beck through the courts.

Scott Stemp, prosecuting, told the Friday hearing that Beck had previously been represented at hearings by Irwin Mitchell solicitors.

But the firm has since withdrawn its services because it was not being paid.

Mr Stemp pointed out that as well as the land in dispute, Beck also owned 11 acres and a nearby cottage at Westfield Sole Farm in Harp Farm Road.

The sentencing hearing had already been postponed twice - once because of difficulties finding a courtroom, and once because Beck had failed to show up.

Beck told the judge, Mr Recorder Fowler, that it was his intention to take his case to the Court of Human Rights.

Beck said he had suffered "21 years of persecution by those dirty, lying, sons of b*****s (the council)" and he described the hearing as "an invitation to a neck-tie party"."

In a parallel case, in which Beck had appeared in the High Court for contempt of court, his defence had claimed that he was unfit to plead because he suffered from a "hoarding disorder"."

That was rejected at the High Court last April by Mr Justice Sweeting, and Beck was convicted of contempt of court for failing to comply with a previous order to clear up the land and he was given a four-month prison sentence suspended for two years.

Mr Recorder Fowler said he was prepared to give Beck five weeks to find legal representation.

He said: "I am aware that there are certain psychiatric issues that would make it undesirable for Mr Beck to speak on his own behalf."

He told Beck: "I give you this one opportunity to get representation. But if you come back without representation, the case will proceed anyway."

"If you do not appear, a warrant will be issued for your arrest."

Beck has also been living in a temporary building on the plot without planning permission, it was said.

He was previously banned for life from keeping animals after locking up dogs in their own filth - and failing to let ducks have water.