TWO residents who dumped rubbish in the street have been fined £400 — after failing to pay a £50 penalty notice.

Matthew Sales, aged 32, and Marian Bihary, aged 43, were visited by council enforcement officers and admitted leaving waste in the road behind their homes.

But neither paid up the £50 on the spot and instead both were found guilty of dumping the rubbish at Bolton Magistrates' Court on February 16.

Neither attended court after both were rumbled in July last year.

Sales left five bags of rubbish and two cardboard boxes behind his home in Beatrice Road, Halliwell.

Residents had complained to Bolton Council, and officers found letters in the rubbish indicating that the waste related to number 14 on a July 11 inspection.

Four days later they returned to quiz Sales, who admitted leaving the rubbish there because he did not have a bin.

He was fined £400, made to pay £388.05 in costs, which included the money spent on cleaning up, and a £40 victim surcharge, leaving him more than £800 out of pocket.

Meanwhile, Marian Birahy left a settee at the back of her home in South Street, Great Lever, alongside four black bags of household rubbish wrapped in a white, yellow-flowered curtain.

Bihary was visited by council officers at home on July 3.

Patrolling officers had spotted the large pile of waste and spoke with Bihary, and she admitted having left the waste, but did not pay the fixed penalty notice.

She was fined £400, and ordered to pay £180 in other court costs.

Cllr Sufrana Bashir Ismail, cabinet member for neighbourhood and community services at Bolton Council said: “We take back street waste very seriously and always actively encourage residents to report any incidents to us.

"We will then investigate and attempt to identify who is responsible. We usually issue a fixed penalty notice, but if people do not pay, we will then take it further.”