A LORRY driver has been fined and ordered to pay court costs totalling more than £500 after his rubbish was found dumped in an alleyway behind his home.

James William Roddy’s bank statements and other personal papers were found strewn behind his home in Woodville Terrace, Selby. Roddy now faces a £505 court bill.

York Magistrates told him it was going to be a “very expensive mistake” and fined him £100 plus £385 court costs and a £20 statutory surcharge.

Roddy, 57, pleaded guilty to failing to insure that his rubbish was removed by an authorised person, such as the council’s dustbin collectors.

Kelly Hamblin, prosecuting for Selby District Council, said a member of the public alerted them to the rubbish in the alleyway. When council officers cleared it up, they identified the owner from the personal papers.

Defence solicitor Lee-Anne Robins-Hicks told York magistrates Roddy had paid a “rag and bone man” £5 to take the rubbish away as it was filling his green bin, which can only be used for garden waste.

Mrs Robins-Hicks said Roddy would never have given the “rag and bone man” the waste if he had realised it would be strewn on the road.

Afterwards, Selby District Council’s senior licensing officer, Tim Grogan, revealed that Roddy was one of several similar cases and that their number was increasing.

He said: “If people give it to anyone who goes round and asks for waste without checking that they have a waste trader’s permit, they are running the risk of me knocking on their door and ending up before York magistrates.”

By law, an individual is responsible for his or her waste unless it is in the hands of a properly authorised person.