A FARMER appealing against moves to close his scrap motor business was unable to show any trading documents, because he is being investigated by the tax office.

A public inquiry into the operations at Fir Tree Farm in Ball Green, pictured below, opened yesterday.

Farmer Calvin Smith is accused of unlawfully storing HGVs and scrap metal at the site in Whitfield Road, despite only being authorised to use the land for agriculture.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council issued an enforcement notice in July 2009, ordering non-agricultural operations to cease.

But Mr Smith is appealing, arguing his scrap motor trading has been happening for more than a decade so there is no need for planning permission.

At the hearing at the Civic Centre in Stoke, he said an ongoing tax investigation meant he had nothing to prove his claims.

He said he went into the motor trade after foot and mouth ruined his farming business.

He added: "I bought Fir Tree Farm in 1997 and had vehicles in the yard in 1998. Police arrived with a search warrant saying I had stolen them, but they belonged to a finance company. I have no record of this.

"In 2001 I started to do more vehicles because of foot and mouth.

"I'd buy wagons one day and then they could go the next day. I have no records.

"There is a tax investigation going on and they have taken all my documents."

John Ferneyhough, a vehicle export trader, said: "I have been trading with Mr Smith since 1998. I have all my company records properly archived, but I don't have them here today, because no-one has ever asked me for them."

The inquiry heard Mr Smith has between 800 and 900 cattle kept in 10 buildings on the 20 acre farm and that is his main business.

The vehicle trade was described as an incidental business.

People living near to the farm claim they first noticed the scrap metal operations on the farm six years ago.

Whitfield Road resident Margaret Lowndes said: "In 2004 I started writing down when scrap was arriving. I saw a bus arrive which was about 40 years old, and then a couple of days later it went back up the road in bits."

Kenneth Lambert, who has lived in the road for 51 years, said: "He did not do this business before 2004/05, he was just farming."

The inquiry closed yesterday afternoon and planning inspector Sean Slack will return his verdict on the appeal in the coming months.