A building company was slapped with a £3,600 fine after part of “large-scale” fly-tipping on the site of a former car showroom was found to have come from the firm.

Invent Carpentry & Building Contractors Ltd, of St Johns Road, Harrow, employed a third party – a man known just as ‘John’ – to dispose of rubbish from building work carried out in west London, which was dumped at the former Hughes Car Showroom in Beaconsfield Road, Farnham Common.

It came after investigators from the Waste Partnership for Buckinghamshire found details in the dumped rubbish which showed that part of the waste – around two loads – had come from the house extension that Invent Carpentry had carried out.

A company director said the firm was unaware that the rubbish would be dumped illegally but it was found to have made “insufficient” checks of ‘John’s’ credentials and had not kept any paperwork.

It was fined £1,280 and ordered to pay £1,100 clean-up compensation and £1,105 prosecution costs with a victim surcharge of £128, making the total £3,613.

South Bucks District Council cabinet member for environment Luisa Sullivan, speaking on behalf of the Waste Partnership for Buckinghamshire, said: “Building work produces waste.

“The law imposes a duty of care on builders to check properly who takes their waste away to help prevent it subsequently being fly-tipped by criminal operators.

“It also allows clean-up compensation to be ordered when fly tipping is found to be the result of failure in this duty of care.

“In this case no checks were made on 'John', who took away the waste for cash and then dumped it in an unused parking lot, with the result that the builder has had to pay a bill far beyond the charges of a reputable waste contractor.

“Part of the payment goes to the landowner to help pay for clearing up the mess.”