FLY-TIPPING in Polhill cost a Halstead company and a Hartley man more than £35,000.

BSP (Knockholt) and driver Gregory Roff both pleaded guilty to participating in what was described as a "large scale, audacious dumping operation". Cleanup costs exceeded £500,000.

Roff, 45, of Ash Road, Hartley was handed a £9,000 fine and costs of £19,000.

Maidstone Crown Court heard he dumped 97 loads.

BSP (Knockholt), of Sevenoaks Road, Halstead, must pay a fine of £4,000, plus £3,000 legal costs and clean-up costs of £250.

In all, four companies and five drivers admitted dumping a total of 8,200 cubic metres of waste over a three-week period. They were ordered to pay £153,400 for breaching the 1990 Environment Protection Act.

The other defendants were Crawley-based PJ Brown Ltd; Peter Alexander, 51, of Eridge Road, Tunbridge Wells; Marc Gwyther, 47, of Ross Road, Crayford; United Grab Hire, of Honeypot Lane, Edenbridge; LMD Crushed Aggregates, of Bansted, Surrey; Craig Starbuck, 37, of Beaconsfield Road, Bexley; and John Ryan, 55, of Consdale Drive, Gillingham.

Prosecutor Sailesh Mehta said they would have had to co-ordinate the operation due to the number of lorries involved.

"Each defendant played a part, big or small", he said.

The court heard Roff took rubbish from "Erith Waste" to the Polhill site.

Mr Mehta was referring to the Erith-based transfer station, and not a similarly-named skip company owned by Syd Bishop & Sons Ltd/Pinden Ltd, of Longfield, unrelated to this case.