Residents who left piles of rubbish in their gardens have been handed huge fines and told to pay back removal costs after ignoring council warnings.

The rubbish included items such as a freezer, chairs, a sofa and tyres with three people now ordered to pay more than £4,500 in costs and fines by magistrates.

The trio, all from Folkestone, were prosecuted in court after enforcement notices by Shepway District Council went unheeded.

Neighbours complained to the council about the sight and smell of the rubbish and officers went round to each property to inspect.

Now Natasha Graham, Gavin Booth and Luke Begg have been told to pay back the council, which removed the removed the rubbish, during hearings at Canterbury Magistrates’ Court.

All three of them had ignored verbal and written requests, a community protection notice and fixed penalty of £80 and warnings by the council they would recover the costs of removal if they continued to ignore the requests and the authority had to step in.

Graham, of Creteway Close, was fined £750 for failing to comply with the notice and ordered to pay £816 costs and £75 victim surcharge.

Her property had a discarded freezer, chairs, cushions and general waste stacked up in the garden.

Booth, of The Durlocks, accumulated general waste, furniture and rubbish sacks in the garden. He was fined £750 for his failure to comply with the notice and ordered to pay £1,105.92 costs and a £75 victim surcharge.

Begg, formerly of Broomfield Road but now living in Ingoldsby Road, Folkestone, had a large pile of discarded material which included furniture, wheels, tyres and rubbish sacks in the garden.

Magistrates fined him £550 for failing to comply with a notice and ordered him to pay £405 costs and a £55 victim surcharge.

Cllr Stuart Peall, SDC cabinet member for the environment, said taking residents to court was the council’s last resort.

He said: “Rubbish of this scale causes a nuisance, can encourage rodents and is an eyesore. Everyone has an obligation to ensure they do not cause a nuisance to others in their community.”