A MAN has been fined over £850 after a trio of fly tippers were captured on CCTV using a tipper truck to dump garden waste on a street.

Three men were seen using the Ford Transit Tipper to fly-tip the waste on Norbury Road, Ravenscliffe, on October 1 2018.

The vehicle belonged to Paul Lucas, and on Friday he appeared before Bradford and Keighley Magistrates Court charged with causing the deposit from a motor vehicle of controlled waste on land without a permit.

He pleaded guilty to the charges, with Magistrates hearing that he wanted to “put the matter behind him.”

Magistrates were told that Lucas, 47 of Walden Drive, and the other two men had taken on a job to clear garden waste from a property - but dumped it after realising they had not charged enough to cover tipping costs.

Aneeka Sarwar, prosecuting on behalf of Bradford Council, told the court that on October 1 2018 three men were caught on CCTV camera travelling in the tipper truck, which had pulled up to a piece of land off the residential street.

One passenger got out of the vehicle and lifted the tail gate while the driver remained inside and operated the tipping mechanism.

Bradford takeaway served fly tipping fine in East Leeds

She said: “A large amount of waste was deposited on the road.”

The passenger then got back into the vehicle and drove away.

Lucas was identified as the registered keeper of the truck, but Mrs Sarwar said he was “not able to identify the names of the people in the vehicle” when he was interviewed.

She said the total cost of the prosecution case, including the £325 clean up, was £911.

Mark Newall, defending, said: “My understanding was the CCTV was inadequate to identify my client, and he could have argued he wasn’t responsible. But he is prepared to square his shoulders and take the blame.

“He wants to put the matters behind him.”

He said Lucas understood the behaviour was “completely unacceptable.”

Explaining what happened, he said Lucas and the two other men had taken a job to clean a garden, adding: “They hadn’t asked for enough money to cover the costs of tipping.”

He added: “He collects and removes scrap metal and items people leave at the end of their drive way. In a way people like him perform a public function by clearing neighbourhoods.

“He takes full responsibility - he was one of three men who behaved in this manner and he has taken the brunt of this case on his own. The other two men will never be identified.

“He will be feeling the consequences of this case very hard in his pocket.

“He has never done this before and will never get involved in this again. Some scrap traders do this type of thing every day. This is not the case with my client.”

Chair of the Bench Anthony Fisher told Lucas: “You must understand this is a very serious matter.”

He ordered Lucas to pay a £320 fine, £500 costs and a £32 victim surcharge. He added: “Hopefully you will see this as a very costly experience, not to be repeated.”