Claiming rubbish fell off his van when he stopped to urinate didn’t help a fly tipper escape a £1,000 fine.

Grant Hover, of Hilda Road, Canning Town, was found guilty in his absence of dumping commerical and household waste.

Thames Magistrates’ Court heard how Hover, 31, was caught on CCTV dumping the load of waste from his work van in Wharfside Road on March 9.

After Newham Council tracked him down through his employer, he told enforcement officers he had stopped to relieve himself.

He acknowledged dumping the rubbish but then changed his story to say the bin had fallen from his van.

Despite Hover’s absence on Wednesday, August 20, magistrates found him guilty after seeing CCTV footage and photographs of the rubbish.

He was ordered to pay a £1,000 fine and as well as £240 costs and a £100 victim surcharge within 28 days.

Cllr Ian Corbett, mayoral advisor for environment and leisure, said: “Fly tippers blight the lives of our residents who have asked us to use CCTV cameras, as in this case, to track down the perpetrators who ruin the look of our streets and encourage vermin to breed.

“Our enforcement teams strive to track down these inconsiderate individuals and make them pay for the inconvenience and disruption they have caused to the taxpayer.

“We hope this prosecution sends a message to opportunists who consider dumping their rubbish on our streets that we will not tolerate this kind of behaviour, we will track you down and we will make you pay.”

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