A MAN has pleaded guilty to fly tipping building and DIY waste in Easter Compton.

Peter Hahn, aged 29, of Southwood Drive East, Coombe Dingle, Bristol has been ordered to undertake 120 hours of unpaid community work and pay £1,628.73 in costs.

He was sentenced at Northavon Magistrates Court on Thursday, October 2 following an investigation by South Gloucestershire Council’s environmental crime enforcement team.

The court heard that a Westbury-on-Trym resident was working extensively on his house and temporarily storing waste and building debris on the driveway, intending to hire a skip.

On Tuesday, March 18 the resident was visited by Hahn and another man, who offered to remove the waste from the driveway for £170. Some of the debris was then taken away in a van.

The following day Hahn returned along with some more men and another van, and some of the remaining waste was transferred to this other van.

As a result of a call from a member of the public, part of the waste was found fly tipped the following day in Farm Lane, Easter Compton, where it was completely blocking the road.

In interview Hahn accepted the fly tipped waste at Farm Lane was some of the waste he had been paid to remove, but maintained that the load he had driven away himself had been initially taken to his home address.

He claimed that he bagged it up at home before taking it ‘piecemeal’ in his personal car to Bristol City Council’s refuse disposal site in Avonmouth. He claimed that he had split the money with the other van driver who he only knew as ‘Mark’, and that he must have fly tipped the waste.

Hahn refused to provide investigating officers with any further information, so the second driver could not be traced and interviewed.

In court Hahn pleaded guilty to the tip and on top of the 120 hours of community work and £1,628.73 costs, was also ordered to pay a £60 victims surcharge.

Chair of the council’s communities committee Cllr Claire Young (Lib Dem, Westerleigh) said: “The council takes a zero-tolerance approach to this type of illegal activity. Fly tipped rubbish is an eyesore, can be hazardous to residents and its removal creates significant costs for tax payers, who ultimately have to pick up the bill.

“This prosecution serves as a reminder to anyone involved in the illegal dumping of waste that if you fly tip rubbish in South Gloucestershire, you will be prosecuted.”

Residents can be liable for waste which is dumped illegally by another party, and could be fined up to £5,000.

If you see illegal fly tipping report it by calling the street care helpdesk, 01454 868000, email, streetcare@southglos.gov.uk or visiting www.southglos.gov.uk/flytipping.