Kinmel Bay garden tip: Men who ran site from home must sell house

Hundreds of black bin bags, filled with domestic waste, were found at the site

Two brothers who ran an unlawful tip from their back garden have been ordered to sell their house.

Ian and Raymond Murray ran the business without a permit from Kinmel Bay in Conwy county.

At a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing at Caernarfon Crown Court on Tuesday, they were told to pay £72,637 within three months or serve 12 months in prison.

The council spent £59,000 on the clean-up, removing more than 123 tonnes of waste and killing up to 500 rats.

Complaints were received from neighbours and a nearby caravan holiday park, which had to give refunds to customers affected.

Ian Murray had £30,413 funds available and Raymond Murray £37,153, so Judge Niclas Parry ordered them to place their house for sale within a week to cover the shortfall.

Up to 500 rats were found at the home

The former taxi drivers ran the waste collection business from Conwy county where there are monthly wheelie bin collections.

The pair received suspended jail terms at Mold Crown Court on 8 January after admitting running a waste business without a permit.

At the time, Christopher Stables, prosecuting for Natural Resources Wales, said the defendants had set up a "completely unregistered waste transfer station" within their grounds in a residential area.

"There was clear evidence of a huge rat infestation with bags of domestic rubbish having been ripped open and rat burrows," he said.

No environmental permit had been sought and it was extremely unlikely one would have been granted, he added.

Sarah Yates, mitigating, said the business was properly run to start with but the brothers found it uneconomical to take the waste to a licensed site, so they began sorting waste at home and matters got out of hand.

She added the defendants wanted to apologise to the community.

White goods, including fridges, were found among the rubbish