A rogue tradesman has been prosecuted for the fourth time for putting up scaffolding without a licence.
Ben Newton, sole trader of BN Scaffolding, put up the scaffolding in St George’s Terrace, Brighton, where it was discovered by highway enforcement officers on May 1.
Brighton and Hove City council wrote to him asking him to apply for a licence by 9 May, but no application was received.
He had three recent written warnings, and so the case was passed to the council’s legal team, who took him to court.
Newton, 36, failed to turn up for the hearing at Brighton Magistrates Court on 12 June, and was found guilty in his absence.
Newton, of Poplar Avenue, Hove, was fined £2,500 and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £120 and costs of £750, bringing the total he will have to stump up to £3,370.
In December 2017, he was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay victim surcharge of £100 and costs of £500 for unlicensed scaffolding in Edward Street.
Newton, who was then living in Lancing, also failed to turn up to that hearing.
He did turn up to Brighton Magistrates Court in May last year, where he pleaded guilty to two charges of erecting unlicensed scaffolding, one in Madeira Place, Brighton, and the other in Hanover Terrace, Brighton.
He was fined £1,125 for each offence, and ordered to pay victim surcharge of £113 and costs of £750, bringing the total court costs to £3,113.
Fine the people who paid him to erect it as well.