The dispute over a blocked footpath near millionaire Nicholas Hoogstraten's £30 million country palace could cost taxpayers £3,000.

Landowner Rarebargain Ltd was ordered to pay £5,100 in fines after Lewes magistrates found the path on land it owns in Framfield had been blocked illegally.

However, 14 months after the fine was imposed, court officials said the money had still not been paid.

And the officials say bailiffs have not been able to serve a warrant issued last March to recover the money.

Rarebargain was fined another £4,000 by the same court last week because the path was still obstructed by a barn, refrigeration unit, barbed wire fences and padlocked gates.

The landowner was also ordered to remove the refrigeration unit, fences and gates by April 17 and the barn within six months.

Solicitors who prosecuted last week's case, the first to use powers in the new Countryside and Rights of Way Act to clear obstructed footpaths, did not ask Rarebargain for costs because of uncertainty about getting the money.

Instead, solicitor Jerry Pearlman has applied for the bill to be paid from public funds, which he estimated at between £2,000 and £3,000.

Mr Pearlman said: "Because it seemed unlikely to collect the costs from Rarebargain, I thought it was reasonable to ask for costs out of public funds as the police do."

Kate Ashbrook, who sits on the Ramblers' Association's executive committee and brought the most recent case, said: "We would very much like the costs but the most important thing from our point of view is to get rid of the obstruction."

The half-mile footpath, which runs beside the property tycoon's semi-built Hamilton Palace at Palehouse Common, near Framfield, has been the focus of a prolonged dispute between the millionaire and ramblers.

Ramblers, described variously as "riff-raff", "disgusting creatures" and "the great unwashed" by Mr Hoogstraten, organised a trespass on the blocked path in January 1999.

The following month about 1,500 square metres of land, where the obstructions are, was transferred from Hamilton Palace Ltd to Rarebargain Ltd.

Elsewhere on Mr Hoogstraten's High Cross estate almost all the land crossed by the path is still owned by Hamilton Palace, apart from a small footbridge owned by Ahmed Ben-Zarti.

Nicholas Von Hessen, a pseudonym frequently used by Mr Hoogstraten, resigned as a director of Rarebargain a few weeks before the company became the new owner.