Sofa-dumping café stung with £10.5K fly-tipping fine

A RUSHOLME shisha café has been ordered to pay £10,500 after being caught fly-tipping sofas in the street.

Café Sipping Ltd, trading as Marmara Shisha Café, was fined £9,000 by magistrates, with an additional victim surcharge penalty of £900, plus court costs of £481.49 and clean-up compensation costs of £118.32.

Six leather settees from the café were dumped at a site on Claremont Road, Rusholme in September last year – and the illegal actions were all caught on CCTV.

Five men were filmed entering Marmara cafe and exiting with the sofas, which they then disposed of in a nearby car park.

Café Sipping Ltd was invited to send a representative to a formal interview under caution by Manchester City Council, but failed to attend.

The video evidence allowed the council to prove the company’s guilt at a hearing at Manchester Magistrates Court last week. Magistrates heard the case in Café Sipping’s absence, after the company failed to attend or send representation.