A NORTH Yorkshire demolition contractor has been fined £4,000 after admitting he allowed broken concrete, rubble and soil to be dumped illegally at a quarry.

Ronald Dobson, who runs a demolition firm from Marston Moor Business Park, Tockwith, was also ordered to pay £1,943 costs.

He pleaded guilty to allowing controlled waste from a housing development to be dumped at Hunters Hill Quarry, Wainstalls, near Halifax.

Halifax magistrates heard how a planning enforcement officer saw a vehicle drive into the quarry site in March last year and empty its contents of building waste.

The officer followed the vehicle to a housing development in the Shelf area of Halifax and saw it being loaded by a mechanical excavator.

Mr Dobson was subsequently interviewed by the Environment Agency and admitted carrying out a job at Shelf.

But he said that only four loads of rubble had been taken off the site when his foreman had been in charge.

He claimed there had been material tipped at the quarry which had nothing to do with him, but confirmed photographs taken did show waste from the housing development.

After the case Mike Robotham, of the Environment Agency which brought the prosecution, said: "The illegal dumping of demolition waste is not only an eyesore but could also be harmful to the environment. Anyone doing this is committing a criminal offence and faces a large fine or even a prison sentence."

The Evening Press contacted Mr Dobson today, but he declined to comment.

Updated: 08:27 Wednesday, March 12, 2003