A MAN has been fined £4,000 after more than 1,000kg of asbestos roofing was dumped at a key environmental site.

Winchester City Council prosecuted Jeffrey Wickens after 1,400kg of asbestos cement roofing was discovered in a car park at Beacon Hill Nature Reserve in June.

The site is part of the South Downs National Park and a Site of Specific Scientific Interest.

It was discovered that the waste had come from a Wickens’ development at a home in Station Road, West Meon.

At Portsmouth Magistrates Court Wickens, of High Street, Droxford, admitted failing to ensure that the waste had been transferred to an authorised person for disposal and failed to provide a written description of the waste.

District Judge Callaway, sentencing, fined Wickens £4,000, and he was ordered to pay costs of £1,863 and a £170 victim surcharge.

In a separate case the city council also successfully prosecuted Anthony Cross, from The Acorns, Bursledon, after a quantity of paint cans, wood, metal, plastic sheeting, packaging and gardening waste had been dumped in Wheely Down Lane, Warnford, in July 2016.

Cross, who pleaded guilty to allowing his vehicle to be used to deposit waste, was given a 12-month community order and told to pay £300 in cost, plus an £85 victim surcharge.

Councillor Lisa Griffiths, Winchester City Council’s portfolio holder for community safety and neighbourhood services said: “Winchester City Council means business when it comes to tackling those who have no regard for the environment and choose to fly-tip. We will wherever it is appropriate, prosecute those who we have evidence against.”