A MAN was fined £500 after rubbish he removed from a customer's home was found piled on a farmer's field.

Adrian Tarft was deemed partly responsible for a mound of trash including a television and tyres that were dumped in Harwell near Didcot.

The 37-year-old was fined at Oxford Magistrates' Court last Tuesday after admitting four charges of breaching his duty of care under the Environmental Protection Act, and one charge of transporting waste without being registered to do so.

The court heard how Tarft, of Wash Common in Newbury, took a £100 booking via his gardening business's Facebook page, Ebony Landscapes.

He admitted collecting the waste without a licence from the customer in Reading - but denied dumping it.

A farmer called officers from Vale of White Horse District Council on March 21 last year, after discovering the fly-tipped rubbish at the entrance to his field in London Road.

The heap included a television, tyres, wood and scraps of carpet.

Tarft claimed an associate had his van at the time the fly-tip took place, but refused to identify the person he alleged was responsible. 

Magistrates fined Tarft £500 and ordered him to pay the district council’s £1,886 prosecution costs.

The Environmental Protection Act dictates that people who collect waste must be licensed and must prevent it from polluting the environment or harming anyone. 

Paul Holland, environmental protection manager at the district council, said: “By law anyone being paid to transport waste must be registered to do so and have a record of what the rubbish is and where they’ve taken it.

“If you book a waste collection you also have a legal responsibility for checking that it’s taking place legally, so please double check any references, and ask to see documentation, before you hand any money over.”