A PAIR who lived in a Weeley caravan, despite being banned from doing so, have avoided jail after finally moving out.

Steven and Nan Hu Canning were living on a plot of land in Gutteridge Hall Lane.

Tendring Council had banned them from placing a mobile home or caravan on the site for residential purposes and took out an injunction against them.

However, the Cannings still moved a touring caravan onto the site in September.

Tendring Council decided to report them to the courts for flouting the injunction and asked for the pair to be jailed for contempt of court.

Officers met with the Cannings last month to hammer home how serious the situation was.

The case went to the High Court, but the council withdrew its application after the Cannings moved from the site.

Council barrister Estelle Dehon told Mr Justice Phillips at the High Court the pair had finally “recognised the gravity of the situation”.

Miss Dehon told the judge: “The council, therefore, no longer seeks the committal to prison of the Cannings.”

The barrister said Tendring Council’s planning enforcement team had visited the land on January 2 and had seen that the caravan had indeed been moved.

The Cannings, the court heard, had since moved to a flat in Clacton.

Mr Justice Phillips agreed the Cannings should pay the council’s legal costs, which came to more than £3,000.