The farmer blamed for starting the foot-and-mouth crisis could yet face court costs running into thousands of pounds after a ruling by magistrates was overturned.

Bobby Waugh was left to pay just £520 after Sunderland magistrates agreed to virtually write off the £10,000 cost towards bringing a prosecution against him.

But the decision has now been declared null and void by a district judge and a new level of costs is due to be set.

Waugh, of St Luke's Road, Pallion, Sunderland, was convicted in June at South East Northumberland Magistrates Court in Bedlington, but payment of costs were transferred to Sunderland as the nearest court to his home.

The Northern Echo understands that the decision to write off the costs was reviewed after it was felt the clerk in the case had not fully briefed magistrates as to Mr Waugh's financial circumstances.

Waugh had appeared recently before a fines court in Sunderland when the bench remitted £9,480, leaving the 57-year-old to find just £520.

Last night Hexham MP Peter Atkinson said the decision to drastically reduce Waugh's costs had further angered farmers whose lives had been wrecked by his "recklessness".

Waugh, who ran a pig fattening unit at Heddon-on-the-Wall, Northumberland, was found guilty of five charges of failing to notify the authorities of an outbreak of foot-and-mouth, two of causing unnecessary suffering to pigs and one each of feeding his animals unprocessed waste and failing to dispose of animal by-products.

He was banned from keeping animals other than domestic pets for 15 years and given a three-month electronic curfew.

Together with his brother Ronald the pair supplied animals for slaughter to Essex abattoir Cheale Meats, where the first traces of the nationwide outbreak were discovered on February 19 last year.

Charges against Ronald Waugh were adjourned indefinitely due to ill health. The court heard Bobby Waugh had a £57,000 overdraft and the home he shared with his brother and two sisters was worth just £40,000.

A spokesman for Northumberland County Council's whose trading standards department brought the case said it would not comment on any decision as to Mr Waugh's costs.