AN OXFORD company has been prosecuted and forced to pay nearly £3,000 for fly-tipping.

South Oxfordshire District Council (SODC) says it successfully prosecuted Met Catering Ltd – which is based in Blackbird Leys – for not disposing of waste correctly in February.

The company have been ordered to pay some £2,854 after a large pile of rubble and waste was found by workers on land owned by Graham Packaging Plastics Ltd, in the village of Chalgrove, south east of Oxford.

Oxford Mail:

During the investigation, the council found paperwork linking the waste to Jakes takeaway in Blackbird Leys – a business operated by Met Catering.

Bulent Yilmaz, the 38-year-old sole director of the Blackbird Leys Road company, admitted to the council that the takeaway premises had recently been refurbished and his firm had paid for waste to be taken away.

Yilmaz could not provide the details of who removed the waste other than it was someone called ‘John’ and the company was not able to provide any paperwork on the transfer of waste - which is required by law.

Oxford Mail:

Last Monday, August 12, the organisation pleaded guilty to four charges under Section 34 Environmental Protection Act 1990 relating to its duty of care for waste.

The firm was fined a total of £2,000 plus costs of £804 and a victim surcharge of £50.

Councillor David Rouane, the SODC cabinet member for housing and environment, said: “This acts as a reminder that business owners must be more aware of their legal obligations when paying someone to dispose of their waste and the consequences on our environment if they don’t follow legal procedures.”

ALSO READ: Fly-tipping soars in Oxfordshire with 900 cases in six months

The case comes hot on the heels of a number of similar prosecutions in the area.

Figures released in January suggested some 3,634 cases were reported across the county in 2017 and 2018.

The area with the highest number of incidents was Oxford, where 1,405 were recorded.

In South Oxfordshire, there were 480 cases.

ALSO READ: Oxford man pays £600 after waste was fly-tipped in Garsington

Earlier this month, the authority forced an Oxford man to pay almost £600 after he allowed strangers to remove rubbish that was later fly-tipped in Garsington.

Lee Loveridge, from Greater Leys, had failed to carry out the required checks when arranging for the waste to be taken from his property.

ALSO READ: Grant Brown from Littlemore fined for fly-tipping

That followed the case of Grant Brown, from Littlemore, who was ordered to pay almost £1,500 for commercial waste offences by the same authority.

The 23-year-old set up an unlicensed cleaning company and was hit with the hefty fine for dumping bags of rubbish.

And in Feburary, SODC made a man who dumped waste in fields after advertising his services across the area pay £1,351.

ALSO READ: Didcot man with a van charged £500 then dumped waste in a field

Didcot’s John James took hundreds of pounds to dispose of rubbish, then tipped it into ugly piles at a beauty spot.

The 42-year-old already had a conviction for fly-tipping.