A FARMER advised by police to leave his home at the height of the foot-and-mouth outbreak has pleaded guilty to poor record keeping.

Maurice Dickeson, from Orchard Farm, in Middleton-in-Teesdale, appeared at Bishop Auckland Magistrates' Court yesterday facing nine charges relating to record keeping.

The 42-year-old was the first Teesdale farmer to fall victim to the disease and was blamed by neighbours for bringing the disease into the dale.

As anger mounted, police warned Mr Dickeson and his wife, Marie, to leave the area, but he vowed to stay put, saying he was not responsible.

Yesterday, the court heard how the defendant failed to keep an accurate register of cattle movements from his farm to auction on six occasions between November 1999 and December 2000. He also failed to keep an up-to-date register of cattle and twice did not register an animal within 30 days of its birth in November 1999 and May 2000.

Lynne Simpson, defending Dickeson, said he accepted his records were incomplete and somewhat disorganised.

She said the charges of not keeping an accurate register of movement of cattle related to two animals which he took to auction and then brought back to his farm.

She said: "Because he did not sell the animals and took them back to his farm, he did not class this as movement."

She said Dickeson had been receiving chemotherapy for Hodgkins Lymphoma, had been looking after his sick uncle's farm and ferrying his mother to and from hospital to visit his uncle.

She said the stress of looking after both farms and coping with illness meant his record keeping had suffered.

Dickeson was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £1,137 costs.