A FLY tipper was caught after being spotted on CCTV with a sofa on his car roof.

A newsagents' camera filmed Peter Lakatos, aged 51, driving the orange settee to dump down an embankment in Farnworth, Bolton magistrates heard.

Lakatos failed to turn up at court twice when he was due to answer a charge of fly-tipping in Greenland Road, Farnworth — a rubbish dumping hotspot.

He was finally brought to book after being arrested in Liverpool.

Magistrates heard on Thursday how Lakatos told council officers that the car caught on CCTV was not his, as he had sold it for scrap the previous month.

But checks with the DVLA showed the vehicle was still registered to him, and he had no paperwork to prove otherwise.

Lakatos, who required an interpreter in court, claimed in an interview that the car had been sold to two men driving in the area.

The CCTV shows two men in the car on the first occasion and the same men plus another person in the back of the car the second time.

On June 25 last year, a member of the public reported the fly-tip, and council enforcement officers found a settee and chair dumped.

CCTV obtained from the newsagents nearby showed a blue Vauxhall Astra carrying the chair in the boot.

A few minutes later it returned without the chair.

A short while later, the Astra was caught with the sofa on its roof, before returning without it.

Intelligence gathered linked the car to Lakatos, who lives in Victoria Street, Farnworth.

Cllr Nick Peel, Bolton Council's executive member for the environment, said: "There has been repeated fly-tipping in Greenland Road.

"Hopefully this man will think twice now.

"The council has brought another person to justice for this anti-social behaviour and we want to send out the message that people will be caught and taken to court for this sort of thing.

"This crime ruins the environment for everyone else in the community.

"It is not minor, it is a serious offence."

Lakatos was fined £400 and must pay £200 costs.