A BUSINESS has been the victim of a bizarre case of fly-tipping when a boat was dumped on their property in daylight hours.

Ahmed Lorgat was amazed to find the 20ft property ditched on his property at Enzio Designs in Brookside Street, Oswaldtwistle, and he’s appealing for help to find the people responsible and have CCTV footage to help them, in their quest.

The boat was left outside the business’s storage warehouse at 6.30pm last Tuesday evening.

The CCTV footage shows a recovery vehicle and a car towing a trailer arrive on the scene.

The occupants of the vehicle unloaded the boat by hand and then spent more than an hour stripping it of windows and equipment.

Business owner Ahmed Lorgat, 65, started the furniture retail business in 1976, said: “Fly tipping has always been a problem in this area. But in all the years I have never seen anything like this.”

Company director Adam Lorgat, 36, of Saunders Road said: “We have had fly tipping in the past but it’s always been small items.

“We’ve usually been able to identify the owner of the items and they have come back and collected them.

“We’ve always been quite forgiving but this is a whole new situation.

“It’s not only illegal but dangerous. You can actually see the pushing the boat off the truck with their hands.

“One of the men who works in the warehouse sent a picture to the group WhatsApp.

“I was in shock. To begin with we all found it quite funny but then we came to inspect it and the realisation of how much it was going to cost set in.”

Mr Lorgat estimates it will cost £3000 to have the boat removed. The council cannot assist with it’s removal because the boat is on private land.

He said: “We don’t actually own this bit of land, we had to lease it from the council when we bought the property as part of the purchase.

“We have been trying to buy it out right for the last three years but it’s a long process. If we did own the land we would fence the area off completely and stop this happening.”

County Councillor Peter Britcliffe said: "Fly tipping is a huge problem the area. But a boat being fly-tipped take it to a new extreme. I think there needs to be more use of cameras and increased fines to deter people from committing the crime.”