A building firm run by construction tycoon Karl Kavanagh, 48, has been linked to two separate illegal traveller encampments set up over recent Bank Holiday weekends, including one in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, where a wildlife haven was bulldozed before residents and the council forced it off. Vehicles belonging to his Hampshire-based company, KK Construction, were filmed being escorted from the site by police after a strengthened High Court injunction with powers of arrest was served, prompting cheers from local residents.

Work at the Sawbridgeworth site began on Friday once council offices had shut for the weekend, with an emergency High Court order issued at 10.30pm on Saturday failing to halt construction, which continued into Monday despite hundreds of residents staging peaceful protests. Kavanagh was separately exposed earlier this year advertising on Facebook for 100 loads of crushed aggregate and tipper lorries, at £200 a load, for sites in Horley and Horsham, Surrey, though he claimed to be merely a subcontractor unaware of the materials' ultimate use; he declined to comment on the Hertfordshire site, saying he "didn't even know my vans were there."