A Chalfont St Peter man has been slapped with a £3,000 fine after he was caught dumping rubbish in a residential road.

On the evening of July 12, 2016, at around 8.50pm, two witnesses came across a large white van with rear door open on land off St Huberts Lane, Gerrards Cross.

They saw two men behaving suspiciously and, being aware of previous illegal dumping in the area, they suspected that the men were fly tipping.

They took photographs of the van from their car, recording the vehicle registration, and saw at least one item being deposited – a white wire basket or cage.

The men from the van approached the witnesses and claimed to have had a problem with one of the van’s tyres.

They then drove off and the witnesses took photographs of waste they saw dumped where the van had been.

The pair reported the dumping, which was then investigated by Waste Partnership for Buckinghamshire’s officers. They traced details in the rubbish to a residential address in Loudwater, whose resident confirmed he had employed a van owner who matched the witnesses’ evidence to remove his waste.

Marius Tomas, 37, of Hiljon Crescent, Chalfont St Peter, was found to be the registered keeper of the van. He admitted to being at the scene but denied dumping the waste.

The case was originally set to be heard in July 2017, but Mr Tomas failed to attend and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

The warrant was executed successfully in early 2019 and the case came back to court for a hearing on February 27. Mr Tomas entered a guilty plea to the dumping charge and was sentenced.

Magistrates fined Tomas £1,200 for dumping the waste. He was ordered to pay clean-up, investigation and legal costs of £1,758. A victim surcharge of £120 was also ordered against him – making the total to pay £3,078.

South Bucks District Council's cabinet member for environment, Luisa Sullivan, speaking on behalf of the Waste Partnership for Buckinghamshire, said: “This waste could so easily have been disposed of properly – but instead the defendant chose to act illegally.

“Then thanks to the invaluable help of members of the community, he ended up in court- even though he had to be arrested to get him there.”