A WOMAN who repeatedly fly-tipped in the flats complex where she lives has been ordered to pay £630.

Victoria Waudby, prosecuting, said city council officers had repeatedly warned Sharn Ogden, 27, for two years about the way she disposed of her household waste at Martins Court off Leeman Road.

Then she three times left large items in the communal waste area of the flats complex but not in its bins.

The council started prosecution proceedings against her after a table and two chairs stayed there so long other people started fly-tipping other items nearby, making it a fly-tipping "hotspot", said the council solicitor.

Ogden, of Martins Court, pleaded guilty to fly-tipping and was fined £312 with £286 prosecution costs and a £32 statutory surcharge.

For her, Kevin Blount said she had a major medical problem that meant several hospital stays, family responsibilities and was coping with an abusive ex-partner at the time.

Moving the table and chairs, which she had nowhere to store "had not been her highest priority," he told York magistrates. "She tells me all the items have now been removed."

The council had offered her the chance to avoid prosecution by paying a penalty notice of £400 with 14 days or a discounted rate of £240 within 10, but she lived on benefits.

"The whole system of penalty tickets is geared towards those with money. They can buy their way out of prosecution," he said. "Those on benefits don't have money."

Mrs Waudby said the council sent Ogden warning letters and a tenancy warning letter about how she handled her household rubbish in March 2016, October 2017 and November 2017.

In January 2018 she dumped a wooden unit and then didn't pay the council's £50 charge for removing it.

In April 2019, she didn't pay a similar charge for moving a mattress she dumped in the bin storage area.

On July 29, the council received a complaint that she had dumped a table and two chairs. She claimed on August 1 they would be collected on August 2.

But the table and chairs were still there on August 13.