A woman ended up in court after paying someone £40 over Facebook to remove bin bags from her home.
Jenny Humphries' rubbish was later found dumped by a river - and letters inside the bin bags traced it back to her address in Halesowen, Dudley.
The 39-year-old appeared at Dudley Magistrates' Court last week, where she admitted an offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 of failing to ensure waste was transferred to an authorised person.
The court heard a walker reported waste dumped on the banks of the River Stour in Halesowen, on January 7 last year, Birmingham Live reports.
Dudley Council waste enforcement officers visited the scene and discovered letters within the rubbish with an address in Halesowen.
Humphries was sentenced to a conditional discharge for 12 months and ordered to pay a total of £266 in court costs.
Edward Bradford, head of neighbourhood services at Dudley Council, said: "This case shows the dangers of paying someone you don’t know over social media to take away rubbish from your home. The law states people have to be authorised to remove waste from domestic properties, to reduce the chance of it being fly-tipped.
