A probe into the illegal dumping of used tyres led investigators to a Bradford firm, the city's magistrates heard.

The Environment Agency launched an investigation last year amid rising concern about the fly-tipping of scrap tyres in South and West Yorkshire, prosecutor Naeem Siraj told the court.

Last September, officers watched as tyres were collected from premises in Bradford by a truck owned by a Leeds firm.

They followed the vehicle as it returned to Leeds before being driven along the M1 to Woolley Edge and on to a disused colliery at South Kirkby.

No tyres were unloaded, as the officers were spotted, but later inquiries led to Express Tyres, in Lawson Street, Bradford.

There it was discovered that hundreds of used car tyres had been collected by the Leeds firm, without the necessary paperwork being completed.

The owner of Express Tyres, 23-year-old Zaheer Abbas, of Washington Street, Girlington, Bradford, pleaded guilty to seven offences of failing to comply with waste transfer regulations.

He was conditionally discharged for three years and ordered to pay £500 costs.

Nicholas Leadbeater, mitigating, said it had never been suggested that Abbas was directly involved in the fly-tipping of tyres.

"He was horrified to hear what the Environment Agency supposed was happening," he said.

Abbas was not aware of the complex regulations involved, having only taken over the business last year.