A PIZZA shop has been fined £2,000 after dumping rubbish outside the gates of a tip.

The franchisee of Domino's Pizza, in George Street Retail Park, Chorley, was also ordered to pay £783 costs after a hearing at Leyland Magistrates' Court.

Blackpool-based Quintet Pizza, which trades under the Domino's name, was found guilty of leaving 10 black bags of rubbish outside the tip at Birkacre, Chorley, in a prosecution brought by the Environment Agency.

Magistrates heard that on March 30, 2002, the site attendant at the tip found 10 bin bags at the gate filled with dough, toppings, cardboard pizza boxes and documents relating to Domino's Pzza.

The attendant recalled speaking a few days earlier to a Domino's employee who had asked about disposing of the rubbish. The employee had driven off when told it would cost £40.

Peter Rolfe, operations manager for Quintet Pizza, explained that the company had recently bought the Domino's franchise and before they took over, a waste disposal company had been contracted to collect the branch's rubbish. The contract had not been continued.

He had asked the branch manager to take the waste to the tip but could not explain why the rubbish had not been correctly disposed of because the employee who left it had since left the company.

An Environment Agency spokesman said: "It was important to bring the prosecution because the company tried to shirk its responsibility for paying for its disposal.

"We always try to prosecute in these type of cases because leaving bags of rubbish around is not good for our environment."