A man has been fined almost £1,000 after an investigation linked fly-tipped waste - including a vacuum cleaner and a gas cylinder - back to him.

Phillip Doughty, of Fundrey Road, Walsoken, put the waste outside the front of his home in the summer of 2023.

According to Doughty, a man approached and asked if he could take the scrap metal from the pile and he agreed on the condition that the man disposed of the other rubbish too.

But the additional items were instead discovered dumped on land next to Walsoken Road in marshland.

The council launched an investigation and traced the goods back to Doughty.

READ MORE: Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Closes two wards

He was initially issued a Fixed Penalty Notice but he failed to pay it, so council officers took him to court.

At King’s Lynn Magistrates on Wednesday, September 11, he pleaded guilty to failing to comply with the householder duty of care for waste under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 because he had not checked the man was a licensed carrier.

Magistrates fined him £450 and imposed court and prosecution costs of £480, adding up to £930 in total.

The borough council’s cabinet member for environment and coastal, Cllr Sandra Squire, said: “Fly-tipping is not a victimless crime: it pollutes land and water, harms plants and animals and council taxpayers are left footing the bill to clear it up.

“All too often these ‘deals’ end with rubbish being fly-tipped but prosecution is easy to avoid.

"All you have to do is check how your waste is going to be disposed of, for example by checking that the person is a licensed waste carrier and asking for a receipt.

“We have the means to find out where the waste came from in many cases and in this case it cost Mr Doughty nearly £1,000 in fines and costs. The irony for him is that he could have taken it to the tip for nothing.”