Compost raises stink among neighbors

LEWES, England, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- A British man has been fined for spreading dirt about his neighbors in a dispute that arose over a compost pile.

The court Monday ordered Tobi Butler to 200 hours of community service and pay about $2,400 in court costs after he released a letter mistakenly delivered to his home about his neighbors being in arrears in their mortgage payments, the Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday.

Butler, head of a sports equipment company, photocopied the letter and sent it to friends, neighbors and colleagues of Marc and Anna Koska in an attempt to humiliate them after they argued about the lawn waste heap, the British newspaper reported. Butler was accused of putting "foul-smelling" compost near the Koskas' front door and creating noise nuisance.

The Koskas, in fact, weren't delinquent and the letter mailed erroneously, they told the Lewes Crown Court in East Sussex.

During sentencing, the Judge Anthony Scott-Gall told Butler, "This was a very mean, nasty little thing to do. You circulated this letter to those in business with him, friends and neighbors to show him up as a man of straw."