THE MANAGING director of a company which made and sold pesticide in defiance of a suspension order was today fined £14,000.

Howard Marshall must also repay three companies supplied with the offending animal repellent - a total of £44,628.

Durham Crown Court heard he attempted to "circumvent" restrictions on the sale of the repellent, renardine 72.2, by Roebuck Eyot of Bishop Auckland, County Durham, after a suspension notice was imposed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Roebuck Eyot, of South Church Enterprise Park, continued making and marketing standard renardine, passing it off as the 72.2 variety through wrongly labelled cans.

Both are pest repellents, but the 72.2 type specifically deters foxes, moles and badgers.

The suspension order came into force in April 2003, over concerns about potential toxicity of bone oil within the repellent.

Simon Phillips, prosecuting, said sales by Roebuck Eyot during the period of the suspension order, up to March 2005, totalled £166,811.

Three companies supplied by Roebuck Eyot had to subsequently recall the product or recompense customers, with the loss of £44,628.

The court heard that 68-year-old Marshall, of Henlow, in Bedfordshire, has retired, stopping work for the company, in September 2004.

He admitted 14 charges brought by Defra over the sale of the wrongly labelled renardine, contravening the Control of Pesticides Regulations.

Geoffrey Birch, for Marshall, said renardine was legally sold from 1896 in the "arena of horticulture and game-keeping" without any evidence of it causing any physical damage.

Mr Birch said that the company hoped analysis may have enabled the sale to resume.

But, passing sentence, Judge John Walford told Marshall he attempted to "deceive" customers and the regulatory authorities by continuing to make and manufacture the product.

Fining him £1,000 for each charge, Judge Walford also ordered Marshall to compensate the companies supplied for the full £44,628.