A HORSE breeder's illegal timber cabin will cost her a £1,050 court bill and has led to her getting a criminal conviction.

Lena Banks, 44, wanted to set up a falabella miniature horses stud farm on land near Sheriff Hutton but today her dream is in ruins because she didn't obey the planning laws.

Ryedale District Council is to apply to a civil court for permission to send in the bulldozers to demolish her illegal home off Cornborough Road.

She built the cabin on agricultural land without getting planning permission and then repeatedly flouted a planning enforcement notice ordering her to demolish it.

Recorder Richard Wright QC told her at York Crown Court: "You buried your head in the sand and have been unable to cope with or deal with the situation you found yourself in."

Banks, now of Easingwold, pleaded guilty to three offences of breaching a planning enforcement order.

She was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £1,050 towards the council's prosecution costs.

"I don't see why the other law abiding citizens should bear the costs (through council taxes)," the judge told her.

Banks had been offered the chance to keep the case before Scarborough Magistrates Court where the costs would have been considerably smaller, but elected to stand trial before the higher court. There she changed her plea.

She told the court she was now unemployed and lived on child benefit and working tax credit.

The saga began in 2013, when she built the two-bedroom timber cabin without permission to be near her horses. But when she applied for retrospective planning permission for three years, her application was turned down and she lost an appeal against the decision.

The council ordered her to remove the building and all other items related to her living there. She didn't, and after giving her six months to demolish it, the council started the prosecution process.

Richard Holland, prosecuting, said she had failed to meet with council officers and had refused to let them on her land.

The judge told Banks the council had acted entirely properly in prosecuting her and had done everything it could to deal with the matter outside the courts. He did not have the power to order the bulldozers in himself.

Mr Holland said the council would get a civil court order for them.