Four of the six-bedroom properties were razed to the ground in the West Pennine moors, Lancashire, The Mirror reports.

This weekend work continued on demolishing the final property not long after they were built in the wrong place.

Building inspectors had examined the almost complete properties and found they were up to a third bigger and in different locations than was allowed.

While Bolton Council initially ordered their demolition in 2018, legal wrangling and pleas from homeowners meant the bulldozers didn’t move in until May last year.

Cllr Andy Morgan said: “Four of the five houses have now come down. It’s the right thing to do. There are two applications for individual plots to be built with slight alterations. The intent is to rebuild them and save so much materials, brick by brick.”

Building work began on the homes in 2014, when planning permission was granted for the conversion of a former farmhouse and four new homes around a central courtyard.

The stone-built exclusive homes were erected on a sprawling plot near Bolton, Greater Mancs. But finishing works were put on hold after a complaint was filed in October 2016, and Bolton Council found the houses were not being built in accordance with the planning permission.

An inquiry heard how plot one on the site had a 31% bigger footprint than allowed, plot two was 19% bigger, plot three 32% bigger and plot four 33% bigger.

The local authority first issued an enforcement notice to flatten the entire development in 2018, following an impasse with the developers, Sparkle Developments.

But an appeal claimed the enforcement notice issued by the council to demolish the homes was excessive and too harsh to remedy any breach in planning regulations.

One of the previous homeowners, Elan Raja told an earlier hearing that he had paid £1,057,000 for the plot in 2016.

He also claimed he had since spent more than £215,000 on the rental of an alternative property and other costs.

He said he had suffered from severe stress and anxiety due to coping with the immense demands of the legal case and had suffered cardiac problems as a result of the “nightmare” situation.

But despite this, council inspectors later decided to give a deadline of May 18, 2022, for all the mansions to be demolished.

A spokesperson for Bolton Council said: “We will, of course, continue to monitor the site in the coming weeks to ensure that the requirements of the enforcement notice are complied with in full.”