Man fined for abandoning car in street for months

A man has been fined for abandoning his car on a street for more than five months.

Antony Smith was charged last year with leaving his 2004 Aixam on Kingsway in Goole.

He did not attend the hearing at Beverley Magistrates' Court on 8 January, where he was fined £660 in his absence and ordered to pay £729 costs and a £264 victim surcharge.

Carl Skelton, East Riding of Yorkshire Council's director of the Street Scene services, said abandoning a vehicle can "cause a nuisance to residents or become a hazard to safety".

The court heard the car was first reported as abandoned to the council in March.

While it carried out an investigation, the car was damaged and its tax and MOT ran out.

When enforcement officers contacted Smith to ask him to move his car to private land, he failed to do so.

Smith, of Kingsway, also did not pay a £200 fixed penalty notice issued by the council.

The vehicle was removed by the authority in August and destroyed.

Mr Skelton added: "In most cases we can resolve these situations by contacting the owners and asking them to remove their vehicles, but in cases like this we have to intervene."

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