A MAN with a van who advertised his services with flyers across South Oxfordshire has been dumping waste in fields.

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

The 42-year-old, of Blakes Field, Didcot, who already had a conviction for fly-tipping, has now been ordered to pay £1,351 and banned from driving.

James advertised serivces including garden services, fencing, paving, hedging, tree work, patios, decking, brickwork, garden clearance and general tidying up.

The latest scam came to light in November 2017, when South Oxfordshire District Council received a report of a large fly-tip along the Roman Road Bridleway.

The site was located away from the A4074, between Berinsfield and Burcot, and only accessible by going along a muddy track and across three fields.

Among the rubbish, a council environmental enforcement officer found correspondence for an address in Sutton Courtenay.

The homeowner had used a local company to carry out some building work and the company confirmed it had paid James £500 to remove the waste.

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The company also provided details of another job in November 2017 that James had been involved with, this time at an address in Wallingford, along with text messages about the arrangement and a flyer James had used to advertise his services.

The council wrote to James to request his attendance at an interview under caution and provide the required waste carriers' licence and transfer note.

Despite reminders, he failed to attend the interview or provide any documents.

While being in a difficult-to-access rural area, the site he picked to dump the rubbish was less than five miles away from the Redbridge Waste and Recycling Centre in Oxford where he could have deposited the waste legally.

In a statement, the council said: "As someone who transferred waste, Mr James should have been well aware of his duties, particularly because he had already been convicted of a fly-tipping offence in 2015."

Following a prosecution by the authority, James pleaded guilty to two charges relating to the deliberate deposit of waste.

Other examples of fly-tipping around Oxford

Rubbish dumped right underneath 'No Fly-tipping' sign in Sainsbury's car park 

Remember Oxford's 'Super dump'?

At Oxford Magistrates' Court on February 4 he was handed a four-month sentence suspended for a year, banned from driving for six months and ordered to pay £1,351.

The council's cabinet member for environment Caroline Newton commented: “We are very pleased that the Magistrates agreed that this was a serious case which warranted a tough sentence, particularly the driving ban which will help to stop this individual carrying out further fly-tips.

“Fly-tipping is a real scourge on society, carried out by those who have little regard for others or the area where they dump the rubbish. If you see a fly-tip, or suspect that someone is involved with fly-tipping, please report it immediately.”