A MAN was fined more than £1,000 for fly-tipping rubbish and a door outside a Shaftesbury property.

Gareth John Mills, aged 34, from Orchard Court, Gillingham, pleaded guilty at Poole Magistrates earlier this month to fly-tipping and failing to provide a waste transfer note.

An investigation was first launched when a householder reported a fly-tip on the driveway of his home, with clearance costing the victim £288.

It was discovered that a tradesman had used Mills to clear waste, who operates the licensed waste carrier business, One Man Rubbish Clearance.

With an upper tier waste carriers licence issued by the Environment Agency, Mills advertised that he carried out trade and domestic rubbish clearances, house, garage and shed clearances and a delivery and collection service of large items and building materials.

In June he was employed to clear some stones and soil from an address in Sherborne and remove rubbish from a garage.

He did not provide a waste transfer note and some of this waste was found at the fly-tip in Shaftesbury.

Salisbury Journal:

Dorset Council said that during an interview with enforcement officers, Mills admitted collecting waste from the tradesman but denied fly-tipping at Shaftesbury.

He said that the black bags and a black door he collected from the tradesman were the same black bags and black door that were fly-tipped.

He admitted he did not provide any waste transfer notes during the incident, stating that he didn’t know anything about them.

Mills was fined £400 but did not pay in time, the authority added.

At court, he was fined a total of £1,088 - £600 for the fly-tipping offence and £200 for failing to provide a waste transfer note, and he was ordered to pay £288 in compensation to the householder.

Councillor Tony Alford, Dorset Council’s portfolio holder for customer, community and regulatory services, said this "successful" prosecution exemplified the council's mission to "keep the county clean and green".

He said: "Illegal dumping of waste is a blight on the community and a crime, costing the Dorset taxpayer thousands of pounds each year.

“We will not tolerate the actions of fly-tippers. We need the public’s continued support to ensure these criminal actions are brought to justice.”