A BUILDER has been fined after moving 250 tonnes of soil off his land on to neighbouring “wasteland” owned by the council.

John Gorman used a 13-tonne mini digger to start the clean-up and shifted 100 skips of soil off his property, but when he ran out of money, he decided to move the remainder on to the land nearby.

Mr Gorman, 43, of Barlow Street, Walkden, admitted one offence of illegally dumping soil on land at Hill Top, Walkden, on Tuesday, August 25, 2015, when he appeared at Salford and Manchester Magistrates’ Court last week.

He was fined £800 and ordered to pay £1,070 costs and £120 victim surcharge.

The court heard that Mr Gorman bought the 1,196 square metre plot shortly before the offence.

He began to clear it and local residents complained to the council about soil being dumped on the land beyond his property.

Environmental crime officers visited the site and found the soil, which contained bricks, general building waste, general litter, glass, Japanese knotweed, an invasive plant which spreads rapidly, plastic, tyres and other waste, spread across the boundary of Mr Gorman’s land and the council’s land. The grass and trees had been damaged.

The following day, they found Mr Gorman’s son, also called John, compacting the contaminated soil with a mechanical digger. He explained it had come from land his father had recently bought and that his father would remove it.

A week later, officers saw the son loading some of the contaminated soil into skips.

Mr Gorman was interviewed by officers and said he had removed 100 skip loads of soil from his plot before running out of money. He showed the officers seven skip hire receipts, totalling £6,680, to prove he had been moving the soil.

He admitted he had not asked for permission to move the soil on to the council-owned land. He said he thought it was just wasteland that no one owned and didn’t think he was doing anything wrong.

He added that he was not aware the soil contained Japanese knotweed or that it was illegal to move soil contaminated with it.

He offered to clean up the site and said he was sorry if he had cost anyone money or caused any inconvenience.

Magistrates were told that it could cost up to £97,000 to clear and restore the land and that Salford City Council is now considering its options, including civil action against Mr Gorman in relation to the cost of the clean-up.

Speaking after the case Deputy city mayor Cllr David Lancaster said: “All land is owned by someone and it is illegal to dump waste on any piece of land without the landowner’s permission.

“Mr Gorman should have checked ownership, although he would still not have been given permission to dump soil from his property on this land.

"Now the criminal case is over, we can decide what action needs to be taken to get this problem dealt with.”