A rogue demolition contractor has been ordered to pay back more than £176,000 in illegal profits.

William Reidy was sentenced to a 16-month prison sentence in 2007 for dumping waste, including asbestos.

Now he must sell land and houses to repay the money he made breaking the law to boost profits for his firm Space Making Developments.

Bradford Crown Court today gave Reidy six months to find the cash or go to jail for 27 months.

The Crown and Reidy’s defence team agreed he benefited by more than £1.7 million from his activities.

Reidy, 62, told the confiscation hearing he was living in a one-bedroom flat in Bradford.

Reidy, formerly of Bolton Old Hall, Cheltenham Road, Wrose, told Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC: “I have no money now.”

He said he underwent a triple heart bypass operation in the summer and had memory problems after he was attacked ten years ago.

The judge ruled that two houses – 15 Soper Lane, Buttershaw, Bradford, and 194 Broadstone Way, Holme Wood, Bradford – and land in Tyersal Lane, were available assets.

Reidy was prosecuted by the Environment Agency in 2005 after they traced vehicles illegally tipping on Council land at Low Moor, Bradford, to Space Making Developments.

After the confiscation hearing, Paul Glasby, environmental crime officer at the Environment Agency, said: “This is a great result. Waste crime is unacceptable. It puts people and the environment at risk and undermines legitimate businesses.”

Ian Cruxton, of the Serious Organised Crime Agency, said: “He should not be able to keep the money he took fraudulently from other people’s pockets.”