A landlord who left rubbish strewn across his property has failed in his bid to get his conviction overturned.

Zubair Khan, 54, who owned a property in Palmerston Road, Chatham, was fined £700 and told to pay Medway Council £1,615 in costs by Medway Magistrates’ Court in 2014.

At the time, the court heard the council’s environmental enforcement team first visited the property as far back as 2011, after complaints about the mess being dumped outside which included discarded household items and a sofa .

The land was eventually cleared in 2013.

Khan appealed against his conviction and sentence for failing to comply with a notice served under the Town and Country Planning Act, which ordered him to clear the waste.

But after dismissing the appeal at Maidstone Crown Court, Judge Jeremy Carey said he did not consider the magistrates' original sentence harsh and felt that it had, in fact, been lenient.

The judge added that in his view, the council had gone over and above what it was required to do to serve the notice on Khan, who had simply ignored it.

He upheld the original sentence and awarded Medway Council an additional £500 in costs for the appeal.

Cllr Peter Hicks, in charge of community safety, said: “This case has been on-going for four years and this landlord created an eyesore for his neighbours which he was refusing to clear up.

“The case and the appeal sends out the message that this sort of behaviour will not be tolerated and anyone who creates an unsightly mess will be hit in the pocket.”

• To report litter, fly-tipping and other environmental issues go tomedway.gov.uk