A transport company has been fined thousands of pounds for illegally dumping an 'un-roadworthy' trailer on a roadside in Bucks.

Transport company Sophia Transport Limited was fined thousands of pounds for illegally dumping a lorry trailer by a roadside in Beaconsfield after traffic cameras spotted employees committing the offence in the early hours of the morning.

The "un-roadworthy, articulated trailer", which was dumped by the side of the A40 in Beaconsfield in the early hours of January 27, remained on the side of the road for several weeks before it was removed and destroyed by Buckinghamshire Council using taxpayer funds.

A director pleaded guilty to dumping the trailer on the side of the A40 on behalf of the Hayes-based company at High Wycombe Magistrates' Court on August 9.

The company was issued a fine of £2,667 alongside a £1,066 victim surcharge, £3,282 in clearance costs and £571 in investigation and legal costs, an amount totalling £7,586. 

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A director of Sophia Transport Limited previously told council officers that the trailer was meant to be collected by a third party who had failed to pick it up.

Due to fears that the abandoned trailer would encourage more offences, and amid concern that it had become a "hazard to other motorists" and an eyesore, the council contracted a specialist recovery company to remove and destroy the vehicle at taxpayers' expense.

Jilly Jordan, Deputy Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment at Buckinghamshire Council said an enforcement team was "'pursuing the perpetrators' of the incident to recover the incurred taxpayer costs.

She said: "This case highlights the growing and worrying trend of hauliers discarding articulated trailers in the county's lay-bys, thus denying other motorists the use of the facility.

"The trailer in this case was abandoned as waste. Discarding it amounts to a criminal offence and our enforcement team will pursue the perpetrators to bring them to justice and recover the taxpayer costs incurred by having to pay for removal of the dumped waste."