THE former owner of a St Neots motor repair business paid travellers to dispose legally of car parts and other waste, he told Huntingdonshire magistrates. But items including bin bags, plastic pipes, 20 tyres, vehicle parts and pieces of metal were dumped

THE former owner of a St Neots motor repair business paid travellers to dispose legally of car parts and other waste, he told Huntingdonshire magistrates.

But items including bin bags, plastic pipes, 20 tyres, vehicle parts and pieces of metal were dumped last June at Manor Farm, Duloe.

A plastic bucket containing oil, engine and gear box oil containers, a waste oil tank, shock absorbers, car seats a gear box and an industrial boiler were also found.

The Environment Agency found paperwork in the bags, which they traced to Craig Young and C&S Autos, Miriam Tordoff, prosecuting, told the court.

Young was contacted by letter and on a mobile phone number given to officers by a man who said he was buying the business from Young, but he twice failed to attend an interview.

He also failed to respond to a statutory notice that would have enabled the agency to investigate the fly-tipping.

Young, of Darrington Close, Eaton Socon, admitted failing to comply with the notice. He offered to clear the rubbish if it was still there.

Mrs Tordoff said the waste had been cleared by the local authority but she was unable to say at what cost to Council Tax payers.

She said the maximum fine for the offence was £5,000 and asked for a contribution towards the agency's £1,494 costs of investigating and bringing the prosecution.

Young, who said he had been unemployed since November, told the Bench he had paid the travellers to dispose of the waste lawfully. He was fined £500 and ordered to pay £300 towards prosecution costs. Magistrates' chairman Robin Hayden told him: "Sadly, wherever you go in this country there's rubbish and fly-tipping.

"You were responsible for this. We will not tolerate this kind of action.

"We have kept the fine to an absolute minimum. We had considered a £2,000 or £3,000 fine.

"Consider yourself very lucky. If you had filled the forms out, you would not have been hammered with that fine."

After the hearing, Environment Agency officer Claire Atkins said: "Failing to provide information about who fly-tipped your waste is no better than fly-tipping it yourself.

"Everyone has a responsibility to ensure the waste they produce is disposed of safely.