Scaffolder fined hundreds for dodging licence

A tradesman who put up scaffolding without a licence has been left with a bill of almost £2,500 in fines and court costs.

Ben Newton, owner of BN Scaffolding, put up unlicensed scaffolding at 110 Gloucester Road, Brighton, and 9 Melville Road, Hove, last year.

But after highway enforcement officers clocked the scaffolds, which had been on both sites for several weeks, he was taken to court.

Newton, of South Farm Road, Worthing, pleaded guilty at magistrates’ court to placing scaffolds in the public highway without permission.

He was fined £700 on each of the two counts together with £980 costs and a victim surcharge of £70.

Both scaffolds have now been removed.