A WASTE collector responsible for flytipping on a North Yorkshire country lane now has a criminal record and must pay the clear-up costs.

Leonard Lowther, 44, of Westwood Road, Castleford, faces a total bill of £740 including a fine and prosecution costs, because he pleaded guilty to flytipping on Henwick Hall Lane, south of Selby, at York Magistrates Court.

But he was acquitted of making a second dump in another country lane.

Selby District Council prosecuted him after a couple contacted them about an encounter with Lowther on Westfield Lane, near South Milford, at 11.30am on February 15.

Sharon Donaldson told York magistrates Lowther's pick-up truck pulled out of a gate entrance in front of them so sharply her husband David had to brake.

Looking to where it had come from, she saw rubbish on the verge including part of a living room suite similar to a furniture item in the truck.

"I got the impression something fishy was going on," she said. "The person who was driving came out so quickly I felt he was trying to get away."

Magistrates said she and her husband were credible witnesses and had said exactly what they saw.

But because they had not seen Lowther actually dumping the rubbish by the side of the road, magistrates acquitted him on the second flytipping charge, which he had denied.

Lowther told them he had pulled in to relieve himself, seen the suite lying by the road and took one item because it had metal that he could sell for money.

He handed in a receipt showing he had taken "mixed scrap" to a metal dealer later the same day.

Lowther was fined £266, plus £360 prosecution costs and £84 compensation for the cost of clearing up the Henwick Hall Lane dump to Selby District Council and a £30 statutory surcharge.

He told magistrates that rubbish had been left by someone who occasionally worked for him, so he was responsible.