A lorry driver has been sentenced to 16 months in prison after a cyclist suffered a severe head injury following a collision with fly-tipped rubbish.

The incident in September 2024 in a lane in Brentwood, saw a man in his sixties thrown from his bicycle. He was subsequently airlifted to hospital in a life-threatening condition, Essex Police confirmed.

Investigators discovered that the cyclist’s front tyre had deflated due to a puncture and split, after encountering waste from a garden shed that had been illegally dumped across three-quarters of the road. Among the debris was a piece of asbestos with a protruding nail.

A police investigation, utilising CCTV and dashcam footage, quickly identified a tipper lorry and its driver as being involved. Telematics data from the vehicle revealed the driver had stopped at the site for less than 10 minutes, offloading garden vegetation and a shed just hours before the collision.…