Flytippers who dumped tonnes of rubbish on Tooting Common have been jailed for four years.

Billy Smith, from Tillingbourne Green, Orpington and James Rice from Swiftsden Way, Bromley, were sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court on October 28 after admitting they were behind the piles of builder's rubble and waste left on the common in June.

Wandsworth Times:

The court heard that the men would drive around in a tipper truck looking for homes which were being renovated.

October: Builder fined after dumping waste on Tooting Common

They would cold call the homeowner and offer a competitive rate to take away the rubbish.

Instead of disposing of the waste legally, they would dump it in streets or parks around north Kent and south London.

The council’s environment spokesman Councillor Jonathan Cook said: "This tough sentence should act as a severe warning to anyone tempted to flytip. The judge has sent out a very clear message about the fate that lies in store for anyone convicted of serious environmental crimes."

The pair were charged with eight counts of depositing without licence controlled non-special waste in or on land and six of causing danger by causing an item to be on road.

Tooting builder Leonard Panxhy, 37, was one of the men who paid Smith and Rice to take away waste, when he was renovating a property in Moring Road.

On Tuesday, October 28, he pleaded guilty to an offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and was ordered to pay a total of £670 in fines and prosecution costs as well as a £25 victim surcharge.