A COURT case has been postponed after it was revealed the defendant had tested positive for Covid, seconds after he appeared in a busy courtroom.

Clive Andrew Jones was due to appear at Bradford and Keighley Magistrates Court on Thursday morning to be sentenced for two environmental charges.

In November Jones, 61, of Westgate Hill Street, pleaded guilty to two charges relating to dumping and storing waste on sites in the Bradford District without an environmental permit.

He admitted that between April 27, 2018 and October 25, 2018, he operated a regulated facility in Baildon - namely a waste operation for the deposit, treatment and storage of waste, "other than under and to the extent authorised by an environmental permit."

This charge referred to a reservoir site on Baildon Moor.

The second charge that he admitted was that on July 26, 2018 at Burley-in-Wharfedale he operated a similar regulated facility other than under and to the extent authorised by an environmental permit.

Before his sentencing was due to take place on Thursday, Magistrates were told that Jones had failed to attend a meeting with the probation service last month.

This meant the service had not had time to prepare the probation report needed for sentencing to proceed, and there was not the staff available that day to produce the report.

Jones was then brought into the courtroom from the concourse, where he had been waiting for his case to begin along with multiple other defendants.

His duty solicitor then urged Magistrates to dismiss him immediately, which they did, before informing them that Jones had just disclosed that he had recently tested positive for Covid.

Magistrates decided the Jones, who appeared in the courtroom and in the busy court concourse maskless, should be sent home immediately to avoid spreading the disease.

Jones had been in the courtroom alongside magistrates, prosecutors, ushers, press and probation officers before his positive diagnosis was revealed.

The case was adjourned to March 16 with the hope that Jones was no longer testing positive by then.

The case had been brought by the Environment Agency, who had told Magistrates at Jones' previous hearing that the defendant had deposited a variety of different waste types including construction and demolition waste, in Baildon Reservoir without a permit.

Jones had been warned multiple times by both the Environment Agency and Bradford Council that what he was doing was against the law.

In 2016, he had been convicted of similar offences.