MAGISTRATES have ordered a man to pay £1,011 after he was caught littering on CCTV by Craven District Council.

Ryan Parker, 25, pleaded guilty to dropping litter from his vehicle on the A59, near Draughton, on March 9.

Magistrate David Archer told Parker at Skipton Magistrates Court on Friday: “Courts are increasingly taking a hard line of fly-tipping of this nature. It’s becoming an increasing problem for local authorities and is of detriment to the environment.”

The court was told that a Craven District Council Environmental Health officer spotted the rubbish a few days after it was dropped and found CCTV footage of Parker’s vehicle pulling up and stopping.

Ben Thomas, prosecuting for the council, told magistrates that the CCTV footage showed Parker getting out of the vehicle, walking round to the other side, and litter dropping from the vehicle, before he got back in the vehicle.

“The CCTV shows the van driving off and you can see the items left in the layby,” he said.

“Due to the location and the fact that he dropped non-biodegradable plastics it was decided to prosecute.”

Parker, of South Valley Drive, Colne, fully admitted the offence when he was interviewed. In his defence he told magistrates: “I’d gone round to the passenger side to do a wee and the bag fell out when I opened the door. It was laziness on my part not to pick it up and I apologise for that now.”

Parker was fined £415 for the offence, and ordered to pay the council’s costs of £555, with a surcharge of £41, totalling £1,011.