A WEDDING guest has been fined £873 for a load of bin bags dumped just metres from the reception – all because her name was on the venue booking sheet.
Lucia Machaya, 29, of The Windmills in Broomfield, was found guilty of leaving the 14 bags of rubbish near to Springfield Park Baptist Church in Chelmsford.
She had done the happy couple a favour when they booked the reception and her name was the one on the booking form for the venue, Chelmsford Magistrates' Court heard.
Machaya was fined £169, ordered to pay £693 costs and a £15 victim surcharge by magistrates after being found guilty in her absence of the technical offence of failing to provide a written description of the waste.
Previously at court Machaya had pleaded not guilty and told magistrates that she was just a guest, who had only lent her name to the booking at the Springfield Baptist church because her friend did not have her cheque book with her when the wedding was arranged.
However, on the big day a man who had been booked to take the rubbish away in a van failed to turn up at the church on June 30.
The 14 bags were later found in a street not far from the church, the court heard.
Miss Machaya had told the court at the earlier hearing: "I went to view the hall with a friend who didn't have a cheque book and asked me to sign the paperwork."
She said that on the wedding day she was purely a guest and had left the wedding reception before the rubbish was taken away.
Alistair Lockhart, for Chelmsford City Council, who brought the prosecution, told the court it was not disputed that Machaya had hired the hall on behalf of someone else.
The bags were found by Chelmsford City Council's Public Health Protection Officer on Chelmer Road on July 2.
Most were filled with food, and had been split open by foxes, creating an unpleasant smell.
During the investigation, Ms Machaya said she did not read the conditions of use.
She was also unable to provide an explanation as to how the waste appeared a matter of metres from where the wedding reception had been held.
Chelmsford City Council's cabinet member for Safer Communities, Councillor Ian Grundy said: "Fly-tipping is inexcusable and an unacceptable blight on our countryside and streets.
"I think that this prosecution is a fair conclusion and one which I hope will encourage other people to act responsibly and legally."
