TWO couples who were caught fly-tipping rubbish from their homes have been handed penalties totalling almost £2,800.

Appearing at Bradford and Keighley Magistrates’ Court, Farzana Jabeen, 51 and her husband, Gulshad Khan, 52, of Upper Rushton Road, were each told to pay £1,096, including fines and legal costs, after pleading guilty to depositing controlled waste.

They had recruited two younger members of their family, who had each been issued with £300 fixed penalty notices, to help them dump the waste from the back of vehicles after it had been left from renovation work.

The court was told that following reports of a large quantity of building material being dumped on land in East Bowling, Bradford, the family were caught on CCTV three times fly-tipping building material at the location in April this year.

Through legal representatives, the couple told the court that they had tried to take the building waste to the Council’s Household Waste Recycling Centre but it had been closed at the time. On their way home they noticed an area of land where material had been dumped previously, and they decided to leave their waste there too.

They were extremely apologetic about their actions.

Husband and wife Mohammed Arif, 57, and Rukhsana Jabeen, 43, of Wrose Road, speaking through an interpreter, pleaded guilty to one charge of fly-tipping, also at East Bowling, on April 23.

Prosecuting for the Council, Aneeka Sarwar said the couple admitted dumping items including a mattress and carpets despite footage showing a member of the public telling them they should not do so.

In mitigation, Kam Dhesi said his clients were of previous good character and had been given “rough directions” to the site and when they saw other rubbish at the spot they believed that was the tip.

He said Arif was too unwell to put the items back in the car.

They were issued with fines and costs totalling £580.

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Environment, Sport and Culture, said: “We want to send a loud and clear message to fly-tippers that we will do our upmost to catch them and put them before the courts.”

Since they were introduced in October, Bradford Council has issued 11 Penalty Charge Notices to people caught fly-tipping.

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