A father and son duo who were paid to undertake house clearances have been fined for fly-tipping rubble, waste and even dead snakes and reptiles.

Middlesbrough Council brought a case against father and son Brian and Garren Mulraney after an investigation into two incidents of fly-tipping led the council's Environmental Enforcement team to the duo.

The first fly-tipping event took place on or around September 3 last year at Saltersgill Avenue to the south of the town and consisted of snake containers, reptile containers, dead snakes and reptiles and general household waste alongside receipts and letters.

Read more: Why Public Shaming Doesn't Prevent Fly-Tipping

Evidence at the scene led enforcement officers to an address in Billingham where a person told them that they had paid Brian Mulraney £2,080 for a house clearance.

The second incident involved the dumping of a pile of bricks just off the A19, and led enforcement officers to learn that a blue van was used in the offending.

Brian Mulraney, 79, of Lambton Road, Grove Hill, pleaded guilty at Teesside Magistrates Court to depositing or knowingly causing or permitting a deposit of waste at Saltersgill Avenue on or around September 3, 2022, and knowingly causing by being the vehicle owner a deposit of waste by that vehicle on a private road adjacent to the A19 on or around September 28, 2022. 

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His son Garren, 50, pleaded guilty to a charge of depositing or knowingly causing or permitting the deposit at Saltersgill on or around September, 28, 2022.

Mulraney senior was fined £528 with an additional £200 victim surcharge and ordered to pay £220 legal costs, £120 clean up costs and £2,019 costs for the vehicle.

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Garren Mulraney, of Crescent Road, Middlesbrough, was fined £320 with a £128 victim surcharge and ordered to pay £340 costs.

Middlesbrough Mayor Andy Preston said: “There is absolutely no excuse for this - and we will always prosecute fly-tipping when we can gather evidence.

“We will always clamp down on the disgusting people who dump their rubbish at the expense of decent people.”