FLY-TIP PEST JAILED FOR DUMPING TYRES

Workman ditched more than 50 tons of waste that led to toxic blaze and airport chaos

- CONNOR GORDON

A WORKMAN who dumped more than 51 tons of tyres on waste ground was yesterday jailed for 11 months.

Declan Clarke, 30, was involved in "industrial scale" fly-tipping across Glasgow.

Clarke continued to dispose of hundreds of tyres even after police raided his home.

Some of them were later set ablaze by others, with the smoke causing flight disruption at Glasgow Airport.

Sheriff John McCormick told him: "This is not a victimless crime as there was a cost to the public purse and landowners had to make a substantial cost due to fly tipping to having this cleared.

"The amenity of the countryside was also affected.

"A sentence needs be imposed not just to mark the gravity but to the cost to others and to deter others committing a similar activity.