A LENGTHY legal battle over the removal of waste from a golf course has come to an end after two brothers were sent to prison yesterday.

The Wyatt brothers had appealed against the decision earlier this year to jail them for failing to remove 150,000 cubic metres of waste from the Waterstock Golf Club in Thame Road, following repeated requests from Oxfordshire County Council.

Michael and Ronald Wyatt, who are 75 and 70 respectively, were told to serve a four-month and a six-month sentence respectively, by Deputy Judge John Leighton Williams at a High Court hearing in July.

Their imprisonment for contempt was put on hold after they appealed the decision.

Yesterday they took their case to the Court of Appeal at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

But a panel of three High Court judges threw out their bid and last night they were taken to prison to serve their sentences.

The Wyatts sat at the back of the court as their barrister presented their case to the panel of judges.

At the start of the hearing their representative, Ned Westaway, attempted to introduce new evidence consisting of a new expert’s report but this was not admitted.

Lord Justice Mummery criticised the move saying: “You cannot bring fresh evidence to an appeal. I hadn’t even seen this until you handed it up.”

Once the judges had dismissed this both barristers put their cases to them.

Mr Westaway argued the pair could not be reasonably expected to carry out the council’s demands because of the difficulty of identifying the land to be removed.

He said: “The work was given to a contractor. They considered it and said it wouldn’t work.”

Sir Scott Baker, one of the judges, asked Mr Westaway: “Is it your case that it may be virtually impossible to identify precisely what is needed to be done to put the land back into a similar state.”

Mr Westaway replied: “Yes, my lord.”

But Harriet Townsend, the county council’s barrister, said the authority had “bent over backwards” to help the brothers.

After hearing both sides the judges came to their decision.

The case dates back to the mid-1990s when rubble from the construction of a service station along the M40 was used to extend the golf course.

In 1998 the county council issued an injunction against the brothers, who run the golf course through their company Wyatt Brothers (Oxford) Ltd, though they claimed they didn’t know planning permission was needed.

A public inquiry was held in 1999 and the brothers were again told to remove the waste.

Appeals followed. In 2005 a High Court judge ordered them to clear the waste and then in 2011 they were told to comply with that order.

Last night Oxford County Council declined to comment.