A BUILDER has been ordered to pay more than £600 after he was caught dumping rubbish in a country lane.

Burnley Council investigated after residents in Mill Lane, Hapton, complained the area was a hotspot for flytipping.

Burnley magistrates were told that in October 2019 a council worker was informed that building waste had been dumped in the area.

Officers visited the site and gathered evidence which led them to identifying a van involved in the fly-tipping.

Sam Dearden contacted the council and admitted he was driving the van on the day the rubbish was dumped.

Dearden, 24, initially denied the offence but when confronted with evidence he said: “You’ve got me, ain’t ya?”

Dearden, of Wallhurst Close, Worsthorne, admitted unauthorised deposition of waste and he was fined £300 and ordered to pay £210 costs and £125 in compensation.

Cllr Cosima Towneley, the council’s executive member for community and environmental services, said: “This successful prosecution is the result of support from watchful residents and the hard work of council officers to gather enough evidence to bring this to court.

“This person was selfish enough to dump rubbish, degrading the environment and spoiling our countryside, and all because he couldn’t be bothered to do the right thing and get rid of it in the proper way.

“We will be continuing to use a wide range of enforcement measures to catch flytippers who treat our beautiful countryside and even our back streets as their own private rubbish tips.

"My message to them is ‘we have ways of catching you and if we do you will be taken to court'."