A man from High Wycombe has been charged £1,000 after being caught on CCTV dumping rubbish in a village near Marlow.

The man, who retained anonymity and avoided prosecution by paying the penalty in full, was caught in the act by Buckinghamshire Council surveillance cameras in July.

He was spotted unloading what appeared to be gardening waste from his van on Winchbottom Lane and told investigators he had been driven to the offence by “needing space (in the vehicle) for work”.

(Image: Buckinghamshire Council)

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However, Buckinghamshire Council disregarded the excuse and handed him a maximum penalty notice of £1,000.

The council upped its powers for cracking down on fly-tippers last year, raising the threshold for fining offenders from £400 to £1,000.

(Image: Buckinghamshire Council)

Penalties paid out by offenders go into the local authority’s coffers for cleaning up litter hotspots.

It also became the first council in England to take advantage of new powers introduced by central government to use dashcam footage from members of the public to help prosecute fly-tippers over the summer in a move leader Martin Tett said was a “tough, no nonsense” way to tackle the “scourge on our society” posted by “litter louts”.