A BUILDER has been fined nearly £2,000 for failing to dispose of construction waste correctly.

Joseph Stevens pleaded guilty at Banbury Magistrates Court yesterday to breaching his duty of care, carrying waste without a Waste Carrier's license and failing to produce waste transfer notes.

It comes after environmental enforcement officers from West Oxfordshire District Council investigated two fly tips in the Woodstock and Combe areas.

Officers found evidence linking the waste to Stevens, and when asked he claimed he had paid an unknown person to remove the waste and the rubbish had then been flytipped without his knowledge.

He admitted not checking if the person was registered to dispose of waste.

District Council cabinet member for environment David Harvey said: "This case emphasises that everyone has a duty of care to dispose of their waste properly, otherwise they face prosecution."

Waste Carrier Licences are issued by the Environment Agency and it is an offence to carry commercial waste without being the holder of a licence.

Builders must also retain waste transfer notes, which provide evidence that their waste has been dealt with correctly, for two years.

Stevens, of Stratford-Upon-Avon, was fined £665 for breaching his duty of care, £100 for failure to produce authority to carry waste, £100 for failure to produce waste transfer notes.

He was also ordered to pay £807.08 in prosecution costs and a £67 victim's surcharge.