A HORSE breeder’s illegal two-bedroom timber cabin home will cost her a £1,050 court bill and has led to her getting a criminal conviction.

Lena Banks, 44, wanted to set up a falabella miniature horses stud farm on land near Sheriff Hutton, but her dream is in ruins because she did not obey planning rules.

Ryedale District Council is to apply to a civil court for permission to send in the bulldozers to demolish her illegal home off Cornborough Road.

She built the cabin in 2013 on agricultural land without getting planning permission and then repeatedly flouted a planning enforcement notice ordering her to demolish it.

Recorder Richard Wright QC told her at York Crown Court: “You buried your head in the sand and have been unable to cope with or deal with the situation you found yourself in.”

Banks, now of Easingwold, pleaded guilty to three offences of breaching a planning enforcement order.

She was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £1,050 towards the council’s prosecution costs.