The company at the centre of a dispute about a blocked footpath near millionaire Nicholas Hoogstraten's unfinished palace owes the courts £24,100.

Rarebargain has so far paid none of the fines and costs awarded against it since the dispute first went before magistrates in Lewes.

The Ramblers' Association is preparing to go back to the same court if the footpath, at Palehouse Common, near Uckfield, remains blocked.

The path crosses land near Mr Hoogstraten's £30 million Hamilton Palace, being built at the tycoon's High Cross estate.

Rarebargain was ordered to pay £5,100 in fines and costs in July last year.

The company was fined another £4,000 this March and ordered to remove barbed wire, locked gates and a refrigeration unit within four weeks.

It was also told to remove a barn within six months. The deadline expired this week.

Rarebargain was ordered to pay another £15,000 in July because the first set of obstructions had not been taken away.

Kate Ashbrook, who sits on the Ramblers' Association's executive committee, said she was considering going to the High Court because the landowner had ignored the magistrate's rulings.

She said: "People don't normally get away with it. This case is exceptional and it is probably because the landowner is very difficult to trace."

Ramblers were described as "disgusting creatures" and "the great unwashed" by Mr Hoogstraten when they organised a walk on the blocked half-mile path in January 1999.

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

A 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 of the land.

Nicholas Hamilton, another pseudonym often used by Mr Hoogstraten, remains a director of Hamilton Palace, according to Companies House.

Von Hessen and Hamilton both record their dates of birth on Companies House documents as February 25, 1945, a birthday they share with Mr Hoogstraten.

Rarebargain's registered office, again according to Companies House, is The Cottage, 3, High Cross, Framfield.

East Sussex County Council was unable to trace the director, a James O'Donaghue, when it first ordered the path to be reopened.

The council has subsequently backed plans to divert the path around the disputed area, prompting thousands of complaints from walkers across Sussex and further afield.