Fly-tipper fined £1,350 - for dumping yards from entrance to rubbish tip

Peter Vickers was fined £1,350 for leaving bin bags, letters and a cardboard TV box on a council-owned riverbank in Raikes Lane.

Vickers, aged 25, of Bury Road, Breightmet, had skipped court when his case was due to be heard on December 8 but he handed himself in to police on Wednesday. He appeared at Bolton Magistrates' Court on the same day and admitting fly-tipping .

He had told council officers that he had paid somebody outside the tip to get rid of the rubbish because it was shut.

He later admitted that he had made the story up and dumped the rubbish on the riverbank himself.

Cllr Nick Peel, executive cabinet member for environmental services, said: "Regardless of whether Raikes Lane tip is shut, people cannot just dump rubbish on the streets or anywhere else.

"People are not thinking things through when they get turned away from the tip.

"And if people do give their rubbish to people to dispose of, for £30 or £40 or something, or ask someone to clear a house, the rubbish could still be traced back to them.

"This type of large-scale fly-tip is a massive blight on the environment and affects us all."

Having pleaded guilty, Vickers was fined £350, ordered to pay £966 of council costs and a £35 victim surcharge.

No separate penalty was imposed for his failure to surrender to court bail on December 8, a charge he also admitted.

Council chiefs issued a hard-hitting message to fly-tippers in November that they can expect to be found and fined.

The warning came as figures revealed that Bolton Council has seized about £25,000 from fly-tippers and litterers in costs in the last 18 months.

The Bolton News revealed last month that fly-tipping had soared by 30 per cent last year, with more than 4,000 incidents reported across the town.

Figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request showed the council was contacted 4,368 times with reports of waste being fly-tipped — compared with the previous year’s total of 3,016.