Leeds City Council chiefs is taking legal action against Chris Medd, 38, after discovering mountains of junk including timber, car parts, scrap metal and electrical waste in outside his home in Middleton.

But the jobless 38-year-old says he has done nothing and is being "victimised" by the local authority.

Medd appeared before magistrates yesterday charged with not having a waste carriers licence or a permit to allow him to keep or treat waste.

The charges stem from investigators being tipped off by staff at one of the council's waste recycling sites where Mr Medd was asking to dump large amounts of waste.

Medd says he collected it from people in the area and claimed he didn't need any permits for collecting or keeping waste because he was on incapacity benefit.

Medd arrived 45 minutes late for his case yesterday.

The case was adjourned until October 23.

A large garden at the rear of the flats was empty but partly scorched.

Items including piles of rubble, garden furniture and a an old fireplace lay in the oil-stained driveway to the front.

The door to his flat was badly damaged after he said it was kicked down.

He had to secure the door with nails and a padlock and chain upon leaving his home.

Medd told the YEP he had cleared 90 per cent of rubbish in the garden but claimed most of it belonged to his late brother, who was the previous tenant of the property.

He said: "I moved into the house about four years ago to be my brother's carer but he died.

"Most of this stuff was his and I was just trying to clear it away and cut down the trees and clean up the garden.

"I paid for a skip and some of the neighbours asked me if they could put things in it as well and I let them.

"I did have a fire in the garden to burn some of the garden waste but that's not illegal. People do it every November 5.

"I hoping to grow my own veg once I've got the garden clear."