A MAN who dumped building waste in the same Bradford street on numerous occasions has been slapped with a £3,500 fine for fly tipping.

Gerry McCann, 50, who now lives in a caravan in Coventry, was caught six times on CCTV on a street in West Bowling dumping building waste from his paving business.

The camera had been installed by Bradford Council to catch fly tippers, and recorded him dumping a tipper truck full of rubble three times on August 31, 2016, and also on September 16, September 18 and October 5, 2016.

Giles Bridge, prosecuting, said: “Fly tipping is a blight to the local environment, a source of pollution and can cause a risk to public health and a hazard to wildlife.

“In 2015/16, there were 10,771 incidents in Bradford involving 2,101 tonnes of material, which cost the hard-pressed Council £290,000 to clear up.

“The waste associated to the six incidents was associated with renovation, demolition and construction, from a tipper truck with the details FH Demolition on it.

“McCann had pitched his caravan on the same section of the road together with another caravan.”

He said McCann had previously been spoken to about fly tipping at a caravan site in Shipley in 2015, and was known by 15 different aliases.

The cost of clearing up the fly tipped rubbish left by McCann cost Bradford Council £1,400.

Mr Bridge added: “It was a deliberate act at a significant cost to the Council and the environment.”

McCann, who now works as a scrap metal collector in the Midlands, and has said he “will never return to Bradford”, was called before the courts on October 13, 2017.

However, due to a digital upgrade at the courts this was moved to April 20, 2018. He did not attend, and the case was moved to June 1, when he again failed to attend, before being arrested on August 8. The case was then moved to September 7, when he pleaded guilty to all six offences.

McCann had 21 previous convictions for 37 offences, mainly driving offences and violence.

In sentencing, Judge David Hatton QC said: “Tipping, particularly in this city is and has been a scourge for a considerable time.

“These actions are historical, being committed two years ago and there is no evidence you have committed such offences since.

“You have left the area, probably for the benefit of this city, and have no previous offences for fly tipping, so a fine is appropriate.”

McCann was given concurrent fines of £3,500 for each offence, and was told if he failed to pay he would go to prison for two months.

He was also told he must cover the Council costs of clearing up the rubbish, by paying £1,160.

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Healthy People and Places, said: “These were repeated, deliberate and selfish acts of dumping waste onto the public highway without regard for anyone else, or even the perpetrator’s own domestic surroundings.

“The problem of fly-tipping is one that is infuriating every community and damaging the environment from inner-city back streets to idyllic country lanes, and we are determined to do what we can to tackle it.”