Two DFS delivery drivers have been fined more than £2,000 for taking money to dispose of an old sofa but instead just dumped it in a forest.

Andrei Jureschi, 26, and Tony Nunes, 36, delivered a new sofa and took the old one away before chucking it by the side of a road in Essex.

The two defendants delivered the new piece of furniture and took £80 to dispose of the large red corner sofa from a customer in Leytonstone, east London.

They later illegally dumped the unwanted one last October in Epping Forest, which is a protected Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation.

At Chelmsford Magistrates Court on March 3, Jureschi of Wembley, north west London, and Nunes, of South Woodford, east London, were given fines totalling £2,160 after both pleaded guilty to fly tipping.

The City of London Corporation, which protects the site as a charitable trust, prosecuted the defendants using the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

Graeme Doshi-Smith, chairman of the City of London Corporation’s Epping Forest and Commons Committee, said today (Tues): “Clearing dumped rubbish forces us to divert nearly half a million pounds a year away from wildlife and conservation projects to simply disposing of waste.

Echo:

“Epping Forest as a registered charity relies on the public for income and donations to protect the site.

“As the ‘green lungs of London’, Epping Forest is of huge national importance and we will prosecute anyone found dumping rubbish here.”

DFS apologised for the "unacceptable" sofa dumping.

A spokesman for the firm said: “We’d like to extend our sincere apologies to both the customer and the community impacted by this unacceptable act.

“At DFS, we believe that all old sofas should be responsibly recovered and sustainably disposed of.

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“The overwhelming majority of our customers’ orders are delivered by our dedicated in-house delivery experts at The Sofa Delivery Company.

“However, during particularly busy periods, we work with a small number of sub-contracted delivery partners.

"In this instance, it was a third-party contractor acting completely of their own accord and without authorisation, who disposed of the customer's old sofa in such an irresponsible way.

“We acted quickly to apologise to the customer and ensured a refund of the money they were incorrectly charged for the disposal of their sofa.

“We have also taken action to ensure that the individuals involved will never work for our business again.

“At DFS we are working incredibly hard to make the purchase of a new sofa as sustainable as possible, including the introduction of our flagship Sofa Rescue initiative.”

Last month, another man was also found guilty of two fly tipping offences in Epping Forest.

Azancout Menezes De Ceita, 38, dumped large amounts of rubbish, including cardboard, plastic and wood, at Alexandra Lake car park in June last year.

At Barkingside Magistrates’ Court on March 22, the defendant, of Canning Town, east London, was given a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and was given 220 hours unpaid work and fined £1,941.

The City Corporation prosecuted 17 people for fly-tipping over the last year, as illegal fly-tipping in Epping Forest rocketed during the pandemic and continues to rise.