Two delivery drivers have been fined more than £2,000 after illegally dumping an old sofa.

Andrei Jureschi, 26, of Monks Park, Wembley, and Tony Nunes, 36, of Cheyne Avenue, South Woodford delivered a sofa to a customer in Leytonstone and were paid £80 to get rid of an old one, which they illegally dumped in Epping Forest in October.

The pair pleaded guilty to flytipping and were given fines totalling £2,160.

The men were working as sub-contracted delivery drivers for furniture company DFS at the time.

A DFS spokesperson said the duo would never work for it again, adding that the company had apologised to the customer and given a refund for the sofa disposal.

Both drivers were prosecuted by the City of London Corporation, which runs the forest, at Chelmsford Magistrates Court.

Chairman of the City of London Corporation’s Epping Forest and commons committee Graeme Doshi-Smith said: “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.

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

"Epping Forest is of huge national importance and we will prosecute anyone found dumping rubbish here.”

Epping Forest is London and Essex’s largest green space and is home to 500 rare and endangered plants and insects.

It attracts 4.7 million visitors a year and receives £4.5 million a year from the City of London to maintain the wildlife and facilities.

There are over one million trees at the woodland and some are around 1,000 years old.

The DFS spokesperson 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.

“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."

The City urges people to report fly-tippers at Epping Forest on 020 8532 1010.