BRAZEN fly-tippers have been caught on camera dumping a sofa in broad daylight.

Security footage shows the pair leaving the settee – complete with cushions – on scrubland behind the car park of Medico UK Ltd in Back St Helens Road South in Daubhill.

And if it is public space then Bolton Council will be able to investigate and potentially launch a prosecution.

The owner of Medico UK, who did not wish to be named, said: “Unfortunately. there’s been more tipping at the same place and it’s totally become a mess.

“I would say it happens once a month. It’s going from bad to worse. It’s an eyesore and nightmare. It’s a different vehicle each time and they dump things like sofas, duvets and household furniture. When I need to throw things away I pay the council but these people are just saving a few bob. That road is used by parents to drop their children off at Heathfield Primary School and it’s a hazard for them as well.”

The X-reg white Transit van was captured on camera at just before 11.40am on October 26. It reverses over an overgrown patch of weeds on a bend next to the rear barbed wire-topped fence of Medico UK’s car park.
The passenger, who is dressed all in black and wearing gloves, gets out, opens the back doors and can be seen putting in considerable effort to drag the sofa out of the van. At the same time the driver pulls forward and the item of furniture slides out of the vehicle and on to the ground.

The passenger hurries to shut the doors and climbs back into the cab before the van makes its getaway.

Cllr Nick Peel, the council’s executive cabinet member for the environment, said: “We have prosecuted people in the past who have been found to have dumped stuff on council land or the highway. This is nothing to do with domestic slim bins or not being able to access a recycling centre.

“It’s just people who don’t really care.

“There have been cases where somebody has paid a ‘man in a van’ to get rid of waste and it is the person who owns the possessions who is prosecuted so people need to be very careful and check whoever they contract to do the work has a waste disposal licence.”