A farmer may face hefty fines after breaching pig movement regulations.

Alan Clement was yesterday convicted in his absence of seven counts of failing to keep records last year of the movement of pigs from his farm in Roddymoor, near Crook, County Durham, to an abbatoir.

The court heard of seven specimen charges relating to last December.

Bishop Auckland magistrates heard that Durham County Council's trading standards officials - aware that Clement collected catering waste to be turned into pig swill - visited West Craig Lea Farm in April, in the light of the foot-and-mouth outbreak.

Yesterday, Terry Fenwick, prosecuting on behalf of trading standards, said Clement had refused repeatedly to cooperate with officers when they called at the farm to inspect his documents.

Magistrates' chairman Eric Fell said he would give Clement one last chance to offer mitigation in court before being sentenced.

The case was adjourned until October 22 at Bishop Auckland Magistrates' Court. Each of the seven offences carries a maximum £5,000 fine.

In March, Clement and his son, Kenneth, were fined after untreated food waste containing meat was discovered at the farm.

The scraps should have been taken to a processing plant where it would have been treated and turned into swill.