THE first prosecution for making crop circles has uncovered a rivalry between the different factions in crop circle investigation with allegations of harassment and dirty tricks.

Crop circle enthusiast Matthew Williams, of Bourton Lane, Bishops Cannings, left Kennet magistrates court in Devizes on Monday November 6 with a £100 fine and £40 costs after pleading guilty to a charge of criminal damage.

He and a friend from America created the seven-pointed star in a field at West Overton in August to prove to expert Professor Michael Glickman that even such a complex design could be achieved by two men with just poles, planks and rope.

But Prof Glickman remained unimpressed. Speaking from his home in Horton on Monday, he said: "To suggest Williams did this in response to anything I said is ridiculous. He and his friends do this kind of thing regularly. I said seven-point geometry was hard for humans to do but I didn't say it was impossible."

Prof Glickman said although he does not say that crop circles are created by extraterrestrial intelligence he says he is willing to keep an open mind and the hoaxers are muddying the waters.

Mr Williams, speaking at the door of his home in Bishops Cannings on Tuesday morning, said he and his colleagues didn't consider themselves as hoaxers.

He said: "If everyone stopped making crop circles, there wouldn't be any.

"One day the truth will come out and everyone will see how Michael Glickman has been hoodwinking the public."

The feud between the investigators and the debunkers appears to be intensifying with Mr Williams accusing Prof Glickman of threatening him.

Prof Glickman denies that and claims Mr Williams had said next year they were "going to take out" both him and Francine Blake of the Wiltshire Crop Circle Study Group.

"And I don't think he meant take us out to dinner," he added.

A crop circle expert did an estimated £200 damage to a crop of winter wheat in an effort to disprove the theories of a rival, Devizes magistrates heard.

Matthew Williams, 29, of Bourton Lane, Bishops Cannings, pleaded guilty on Monday to causing criminal damage to the crop at Manor Farm, West Overton, on the night of August 24 and 25 this year.

The case was Britain's first prosecution for criminal damage resulting from crop cricle creation.

Roger Jones, prosecuting, said Williams helped to make the pattern of a seven-pointed star in the wheat in order to disprove the theory of another corn circle expert, Professor Michael Glickman, that this kind of pattern could not be created by humans.

Prof Glickman had received material about the pattern over the Internet from an American chat show host, Whitley Strieber, and considered it constituted evidence of criminal damage.

Mr Jones said Williams was arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage to the crop and was 'quite candid' in interview, clearly admitting that, with a friend who has since returned to America, he had caused the damage.

He told police how the star was constructed and that he had created it because Prof Glickman, of Horton, near Devizes, had said it was impossible for humans to create a seven-pointed pattern of this type.

Prof Glickman also wroite an rticle for the Gazette outlining his theory that the ,ost complicated circles could not be man made.

Duty solicitor Stephen Clifford, defending, said that Willams felt that Prof Glickman had not presented a balanced picture of the crop circle situation and seemed to be 'hoodwinking the public'.

Williams had been in discussion on Prof Glickman's claims with Whitley Strieber, a friend of Prof Glickman's, who had said 'if you can prove he's wrong, go ahead and prove it'.

He sent the pictures of the star formation to Mr Strieber who, in turn, sent them to Prof Glickman who contacted the police.

Mr Clifford said Williams thought the field in which the star was created belonged to a farmer who had not objected to corn circles in the past. But he was wrong and the owner, farmer,Michael Maude, called in the police.

He said that Williams had assisted in the making of BBC programmes in the past and had no wish to trouble the courts in the future Mr Clifford said: "He hopes what he has done will now resolve the argument that these particular creations are man made."

Presiding magistrate Geoffrey Olsen said that the bench was unable to make any order for compensation as the amount claimed was in dispute.

He said: "It is unfortunate the landlord will have to pursue the defendant through other agencies."

He told Williams: "Had you made sure who owned the field before taking this action, the bench is sure you wouldn't be in front of us today."

Under oath, Williams had told the bench he lived on £51 a week benefit. Although he had appeared on BBC TV's Country File, he had received no remuneration.

He said he had been retained by a company to form their logo in a field of crops for an advertising campaign, but he had received only expenses for it.

Williams, who is unemployed but has written extensively for the UFO press and The Guardian, was fined £100 with £40 costs and given 28 days to pay.