A COUPLE from York have been fined £600 for illegally dumping waste people had paid them to take away.

Leigh Garside and Paige Greenwood face fines and court charges of more than £1100, after a court appearance this week. The pair had failed to turn up at an earlier hearing, and a warrant was issued for their arrest.

In December last year, two people responded to a Facebook post by Greenwood, 24, offering to remove waste. She arranged for her partner Garside, 26, to remove the rubbish in a white unmarked van, and was paid £10 on both occasions.

Later, council officers investigating fly tipping on Broad Lane, Upper Poppleton, found labels giving the address of one of the residents who had paid for the collection. Garside, of Roache Avenue, was then told to produce his waste carrier’s licence, and evidence he had lawfully got rid of waste that he had collected in the last two years, but he couldn’t do either.

Greenwood, of Heathside, York, admitted posting messages on Facebook but hadn’t ensured that her partner was a registered waste carrier, while Garside admitted to dumping waste in Broad Lane, Upper Poppleton, carrying waste without a licence and failing to produce information about waste and other environmental offences.

He had told investigators did not know about requirements, and he dumped the waste on a pile already there thinking that it wouldn’t make any difference.

City of York Council prosecuted the pair, and Cllr Andrew Waller said:

“Waste carriers which service businesses or residents must be properly licensed and must correctly dispose of the waste they pick up.

“Not only is the carrier responsible for safe disposal, but people who hire them must also check they are properly licensed or else they themselves could risk a criminal record.

“Fly-tipping is unsightly, anti-social and can pollute the land it’s dumped on. It’s very important to dispose of chemical or oil-based waste correctly to avoid dangerous contamination.”