The former boss of a company which dumped illegal waste, including asbestos, on unlicensed sites has been jailed for 12 months.

John Bruce, of Enid Blyton Corner, Droitwich Spa, acted through greed to avoid landfill tax while running Ivory Plant Hire, which has since been wound up, Worcester Crown Court heard.

Judge Frank Chapman said he had "flagrantly ignored the law" and had used any method he could to cheat the system including lies and false paperwork.

He banned 30-year-old Bruce from holding a directorship of a company for 10 years.

The judge ordered Bruce's girlfriend Ann Gartlan, aged 38, of the same address, to carry out 120 hours community work and banned her from a directorship for five years.

He also ordered the mother of two to pay £20,000 costs within 12 months and warned that she might have to sell her £180,000 home to meet the payment.

Although Bruce was barred as an undischarged bankrupt, he was company secretary of Ivory Plant Hire, based in The Crabbe Yard, Wadborough, while Gartlan was the sole director of the firm, paying herself £25,000 a year. Their crimes came to light after an investigation by the Environment Agency and Worcestershire County Council found illegal dumping on eight sites. Judge Chapman said Bruce regarded the investigators as "busy-bodies" who were preventing him "from making an easy living".

The judge went on: "It is vital that the disposal of waste is controlled so that land and water are not poisoned or disfigured."

But he said waste was indiscriminately tipped into fields and Bruce even had the cheek to carry on dumping himself in front of enforcement officers.

In 1999 Bruce was fined £5,000 for breaching a court order and served a six-month jail term for contempt of court. He also had four previous convictions for driving while banned.

The judge called Bruce's offending "persistent and arrogant" and told Gartlan she had allowed the firm to be run illegally. The case sprung from her failure as a director.

Bruce pleaded guilty to seven counts of illegal dumping, being concerned in company management while a bankrupt and breaching enforcement notices.

Gartlan admitted two dumping offences and breaching enforcement notices.