Bricks, planks and toilet seats were dumped across a road after a Loughton-based bathroom company hired an unlicensed man in a van to take its rubbish.

The Bathroom Fitting Company Ltd has been ordered to pay more than £2,000 after its building waste was left in Pick Hill, Waltham Abbey.

The company was found guilty of a waste duty of care offence for the fly-tipping in April.

At court, the director of the company pleaded guilty to the offence and was fined £1,250, ordered to pay prosecution costs of £965.75 and a victim surcharge of £120.

Despite the company’s usual practice of arranging removal with a skip company, employees instead gave their assorted waste to the man in a van.

They failed to check he was licensed and did not request or keep a waste transfer note.

“The waste was fly-tipped as a result of their negligence,” Epping Forest District Council said.

Environment councillor Will Breare-Hall said: “It’s important as a business owner and householder to remember that you have a duty of care when employing someone to dispose of your waste.

“You may not be the person fly-tipping, but you will be held accountable if you do not make reasonable checks to ensure the person you are entrusting is legally compliant.

“We are asking our residents and business owners to be vigilant, to ‘check, challenge and record’, to protect yourselves and help us in the fight against fly-tipping and its detrimental effects on our environment.”

Last week the scale of fly-tipping in Epping Forest was revealed, with an average of two dumps removed from the forest every day.

Cllr Breare-Hall said companies should check details of any waste carriers, especially if they are cold callers, and to check their details with the Environment Agency.

They should also ask how the rubbish will be removed and where it will be taken.

These details should all be recorded, Cllr Breare-Hall said, with legal and compliant operators normally happy to co-operate.

Report fly-tipping by phoning 01992 564608 or visit http://ow.ly/m69U301vKHZ with the vehicle’s registration, date and time of the incident.