TRADING standards officers are celebrating victory in the first contested fly-tipping court case in Kent.

Two labourers from Witterham, near Ashford, were fined £1,500 each by magistrates after being convicted of dumping a truck-load of rubble in a leafy country lane in Warehorne.

They were also ordered to pay a total of £1,700 prosecution costs to Kent County Council and face a hefty legal bill for their own defence led by a barrister.

Former police chief inspector Tony Bartlett was the senior environmental crime enforcement officer who compiled the case against the men.

After the hearing he said: “I am very content with the outcome of the case. It sends a clear message to fly-tippers – don’t do it around here!”

Steven Potts and Tony Vidler now face fines and costs of more than £2,356 each.

They were working for Ashford builders Ellicon on the housing development at Crodace in Deal when they tipped their rubbish.

Mr Bartlett said: “We fully investigated their employers and were satisfied they played no part in this incident. The young men, for whatever reason, took it upon themselves to dump this rubbish.”

They were seen fly-tipping in Parsonage Lane back in January last year by local landowner Paul Restorick.

He jumped in his Land Rover and gave chase, following the builders’ hired Ford Transit tipper truck for miles to gather evidence against them.

In the end, it was Mr Restorick’s evidence that won the day. The men insisted the truck he saw was not theirs, but the court heard it had been hired by Ellicon from Ashford Self Hire and it was the only tipper truck the firm owned.

Mr Bartlett added: “Fly-tipping is a growing problem across the whole of the UK and is a multi-million pound business. This was the first contested fly-tipping case we have had in Kent and we got the result we wanted.”