A FARMER thought someone was playing a practical joke when his local council wrote to him asking how many sheep he kept in a field, and what they ate.

That was until he read the sobering caution, written in bold black type, that: "It may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court".

The letter is the latest salvo in a long-running planning wrangle over Len Webster's Chestnut Farm house, and was written by Hambleton District Council's enforcement officer Alan Kendall.

It followed an unannounced visit to Mr Webster's home, at Great Busby, near Stokesley, recently.

The council has threatened him with prosecution for breaching an agricultural occupancy condition attached to the house following the discovery that the farmer has been making more money through bed-and-breakfast than through farming.

Maurice Cann, head of the council's development control said yesterday: "They may appear to be very obvious questions, but that is not to say they are obvious in a legal capacity. They could be relevant to the case. The facts have to be established in order to address this case fully."

The council has said it will look afresh at Mr Webster's case, possibly at the local authority's next planning meeting on September 6.