A TAKEAWAY owner whose staff dumped food and other waste in a York car park has been fined for fly tipping.

Mehmet Ali Altun appeared before York magistrates after members of the public complained to City of York Council about bags of rubbish being left in Bootham Row car park.

Jessica Savage, for the council, said when environmental enforcement officers investigated, they identified some of the rubbish as coming from La Bodrum restaurant in Bootham.

Altun, 51, of Woolnough Avenue, Tang Hall, York, pleaded guilty to two charges of fly tipping black bin bags containing cooked food waste and other restaurant related rubbish. The restaurant has since changed hands.

Jessica Savage, for the council, said the takeaway rented a council commercial waste skip in Bootham Row car park but the council removed it on December 9, 2010, because the fees had not been paid for a year. Other businesses had skips in the same area.

On December 14, 2010, environmental enforcement officers found eight bags of rubbish by the remaining waste skips and on January 17, 2011, a further ten. They identified waste in two of the bags as coming from La Bodrum.

Altun was fined £150 and ordered to pay £100 prosecution costs and £15 victim surcharge.

Speaking for Altun, solicitor Mark Thompson said his client had not paid the skip fees in 2010 because he and the council had been in dispute over it.

He alleged other businesses and residents in the area used Altun’s skip for their rubbish so when his staff came to put out its rubbish, there was no room inside. They therefore put their rubbish sacks in the general area.

Mr Thompson said sometimes when a business’s own skip was full of other people’s rubbish, they took out rubbish before putting theirs in.