Four South Tyneside residents have been ordered to pay fines totalling £1,640 for failing to clean up rubbish they had dumped.
In the first case, waste dumped in a back lane in South Shields led to Lisa Higginson, of West Park Road, being fined £660 in her absence by South Tyneside Magistrates last week. She was also ordered to pay £100 in costs and a £66 victim surcharge.
The court heard how rubbish including bags, boxes and an old linen bin was found abandoned illegally last December.
