A businessman acted in a "mean and nasty" way when he tried to ruin his millionaire neighbour's financial reputation following a dispute over a compost heap.

Tobi Butler, 37, stole a private letter which was wrongly delivered to his home and sent copies around the village of Sheffield Green, near Uckfield.

The letter, which detailed mortgage arrears of £7,214, was used by Butler to try to taint the reputation of his wealthy neighbours Marc and Anna Koska in order to get revenge.

He printed out 50 copies and circulated them to their friends, villagers, business colleagues and even to the couple's children's school.

But the arrears had only arisen as a technicality after the couple changed mortgage lender and when they discovered what was going on they called the police.

Butler, of Mill Lane, who has no previous convictions, was charged with theft. He denied the offence at the start of his trial last month but later changed his plea to guilty.

Today he appeared at Lewes Crown Court where Judge Anthony Scott-Gall sentenced him to 200 hours unpaid work in the community and ordered him to pay £1,200 prosecution costs.

The judge said: "This was a mean, nasty, little offence committed to get revenge in a dispute in which he was coming off worse."

After the hearing Mr Koska, who was made an OBE for his work inventing a syringe which can be used once and has saved thousands of lives, said he was glad the court proceedings were finally over but he was still waiting for an apology.

Mr Koska, speaking from Nairobi where he is on business, said: "I am really pleased it is over and done with and I really think he should apologise.

"It was demoralising and it was disgusting."

Mr Koska said he had no issue with the sentence passed on Butler. He said: "Obviously the judge made the decision after hearing the evidence. That is the way the justice system works and that seems a fair outcome.

"He has to live with the fact he is guilty."

Mr Koska, who said disputes continue between neighbours and Butler, said he believes Butler should apologise to all the people who were sent copies of the letter. He said: "I would very much like him to take responsibility for his actions."

The court heard the letter, which Butler claimed was wrongly delivered to his home in May last year, stated legal action may be started against the Koskas and their home could be repossessed because of the arrears.

When police investigated the letters sent around the village were linked to Butler by his fingerprints.

Some of the letters had comments added in his own handwriting.

At an earlier court hearing Ann Toynbee, prosecuting, said: "The letters suggested Mr Koska was someone who had bad credit and could not be trusted. This caused his family a great deal of concern.

"Without the background of the legitimate arrears being explained, it would appear to any business or creditor that Mr Koska had a poor credit history."

The court heard there had been problems between Butler, a father-of-one, and his neighbours because of issues about his dogs and a compost heap in his garden.

Sara-Lise Howe, defending, said because of the on-going dispute Butler "foolishly" decided to copy and circulate the letter after it was mistakenly delivered to him.

She said: "He carried out a foolish and spiteful act.

"Unfortunately when people are in dispute they sometimes do stupid things. He did not know they were changing mortgages and there was no financial difficulty."

Ms Howe said Butler ran his own gym equipment business and had been earning up to £110,000 a year but in October 2005 he put the company into voluntary liquidation although it continues to operate.

She said Butler, who continues to travel abroad for company business, hopes the firm will be out of liquidation in just over a year.

Ms Howe said he had credit card debts of £25,000 and now only took out of the business enough money to cover his household expenses, including a £400,000 mortgage on his home.

His wife was working part-time in a newsagents.