AN ILLEGAL scrap metal dealer has been ordered to pay a £1,230 court bill and banned from driving for six months.

Craig Miles was prosecuted by City of York Council after North Yorkshire Police stopped him with scrap metal in December 2018.

He didn’t have authority to handle scrap metal commercially and his vehicle did not have business insurance.

Miles, 44, of Roche Avenue, off Bell Farm Avenue, York, was convicted of collecting, transporting and selling scrap metal without a licence.

He was also convicted of not keeping mandatory records about his scrap metal activities and of not providing the council with paperwork about them.

York magistrates fined him £600, ordered him to pay £600 prosecution costs and a statutory surcharge of £30.

Council executive member Cllr Denise Craighill said: “We hope the sentences send a strong message that the collection, storage or sale of commercial and domestic scrap metal must be correctly licensed.

“The council will continue to investigate and prosecute businesses that operate illegally.”

She urged anyone with scrap metal to make sure they only handed it to a licensed dealer.