Migrant workers tried to defend the luxury villa-type development

A 60-person hostel was bulldozed in February after Alan Garrard, 29, failed to comply with a stop notice.

The gangmaster, from Gosberton near Spalding, was given a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay �20,000 in costs.

However, the judge praised Garrard for "providing employment" for the area.

Pelted with bricks

South Holland District Council is attempting to recover the �100,000 that it cost to demolish the property.

District Judge David Meredith said in his decision that the council's view of the situation may have been "too blinkered".

The judge said the council should have explained its planning rules more clearly.

He added the defendant's vision for the area was "two or three generations" ahead of his time.

Police were pelted with bricks by the migrant workers when the demolition work started at the Mediterranean-style hostel in Gosberton.

Garrard, of St Johns Street, Holbeach, told the court that the council had adopted a "Mickey Mouse" attitude by insisting he acted unlawfully.

He employs hundreds of eastern European migrants in South Lincolnshire and Cornwall.