More than 5,000 litterers and fly-tippers have been fined on the spot by Wandsworth Council in just over a year.

The culprits include individuals and businesses, with the full figure of 5,099 fines having been handed out since March 2017.

More than 1,300 of those penalties were given to people who had either thrown litter from a moving vehicle or to businesses who blocked pavements with commercial waste.

More serious fly-tips were the reason for 174 fines.

The council hopes these statistics will serve as a warning for people, and reassure residents that it is working to keep streets clean.

One priority is to warn residents about “cowboy” waste collectors, who people pay to get rid of their rubbish but dump it rather than pay appropriate fees at a legal site.

In such cases, not only is the fly-tipper committing a crime, but the person who paid them is also legally liable – with the maximum penalty for serious fly-tipping being an unlimited fine and/or five years in prison.

A council statement pointed to recent government statistics as showing that the authority’s efforts are yielding results.

The data show that despite Wandsworth being inner London’s largest and most populous borough, it accounts for less than 1.2 per cent of all fly-tips across the whole of Greater London.