A property developer who unlawfully demolished a listed building in Putney could be jailed if he does not rebuild it.

Wandsworth Council is seeking a High Court injunction requiring Rajiv Laxman, director of a Croydon-based property development firm Abrus, to immediately begin rebuilding the Grade II Listed former caretaker's cottage at Brandlehow School.

Mr Laxman has already been to court twice and had to pay £24,000 in fines and legal costs following his unlawful demolition of the cottage in January 2007.

In November 2007, he was ordered by magistrates to pay £11,000 for tearing down the building without consent.

Mr Laxman was then issued with a formal notice telling him to rebuild the cottage. When he failed to comply with the notice, he was taken to court for a second time in March 2008 and ordered to pay a further £13,000.

Since then no work on the cottage has been done.

The council has now lodged papers with the High Court to seek the injunction. Failure to comply with it could lead to Mr Laxman being jailed or fined an unlimited amount.

Council leader Edward Lister said: "Mr Laxman would be well advised to start work right away on complying with the notice and restoring this listed building.

"So far he has blatantly ignored all planning laws and regulations. He has demolished an important listed building without permission and has then done absolutely nothing to put things right.

"If he thinks he can just leave the building to slowly rot away or is gambling that as a planning authority we will simply give up on this case then he is very much mistaken.

"We are now pursuing this case in the High Court and if we obtain an injunction and he fails to comply with it, then we will not hesitate to bring him back to court for contempt."

The cottage was formerly part of Brandlehow School until it was declared surplus to the school's needs in 2001.