Thoughtless fly-tippers are finding there's a price to pay for their actions as authorities clamp down on illegal rubbish dumping.

Dumping a bin bag of household rubbish in a lay-by or the local woods will set perpetrators back £75, Three Rivers District Council warned this week.

Last week alone four litter louts were slapped with fines of £75 by the council in the form of fixed penalty notices.

One of them was a Three Rivers resident while the other three had all come from neighbouring areas to dump their rubbish.

Three Rivers Head of Environmental Protection Karl Murdoch said: "Fly-tipping and littering costs money to clean up.

"Three Rivers District Council estimates that it costs the taxpayer £75 to clean up an average fly-tip and hundreds of them take place each year."