SCRAP metal dealers have “no excuse” for not keeping proper records, it has been warned, after one man was landed with a £2,500 fine.

It comes after dealer operating in the Vale of White Horse District Council area was fined after failing to produce records of the metal he was transporting.

Leonard Stefan, 22, of Haybarnes Road, Birmingham, was sentenced in his absence at Oxford Magistrates’ Court last Monday for two counts of breaching the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013.

Roger Cox, cabinet member for environmental health at Vale of White Horse District Council, said: “The rise in recent years of metal thefts has meant that scrap dealers must now keep detailed records showing where their metal came from and where it’s gone.

“All dealers know the law and the reasons why it has been put in place so there really is no excuse for not having proper records.”

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Magistrates heard that on June 23 Stefan was stopped by police while he collected scrap metal in Abingdon.

The court was told that when environmental health officers from Vale of White Horse District Council attended Stefan showed them his waste carrier's and scrap metal collector's licences.

However, he failed to produce any records of the metal he had collected that day.

To help reduce scrap metal thefts, dealers are required by law to keep detailed records showing where metal comes from and where it has been disposed of.

This information must be kept on record for a minimum of three years.

Having failed to appear at a court hearing arranged for November 9, Stefan again failed to appear on Monday so the case was heard in his absence.

He was fined £2,500 and also ordered to pay costs and charges totalling £980.