A PENSIONER is facing a hefty legal bill after losing a long running fight to save his collection of vintage machinery.

John 'Husky' Petch was attempting to overturn a 16-year-old injunction that banned him from storing his equipment in the rear of his home in Dormanstown, near Redcar.

The retired mechanic had been able use a Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council-owned building on The Green, Dormanstown, for his collective but in October last year he was forced out following a lengthy stand-off.

The 67-year-old was forced to quit the building despite barricading himself in to prevent High Court Sheriffs from evicting him when the council demanded he leave.

Today (Monday), following a hearing at Middlesbrough County Court he lost his bid to overturn the 1999 ruling so that he could store his most valuable items at his home, maintaining that it is a breach of his human rights.

The council had already been granted a court order enabling them to start to remove the tonnes of machinery from the secured compound.

“They have told me that I can’t use my rear garden so that means I have nowhere to put my machinery,” he said.

“I’m devastated because the council is going to sell off all of my gear to cover their legal costs – the world has gone mad. All I want is to have some of my prized possessions in my own garden.

“They won’t let me move my machinery back into my garden, they won’t let me back into the compound to sort out my machinery – what has happened to my human rights? As far as I’m concerned this is not over yet.”

In February, the pensioner collapsed in the toilets of the court building after learning that Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council planned to go ahead with selling off his belongings.

Steve Turner, who has campaigned alongside Mr Petch to overturn the court order, said: “We are all really worried about him. He collapsed before in the court building and this fight has taken its toll on him.”

No-one from Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council was available for comment.