The latest criminal growth industry is fly-tipping - and it's no wonder the countryside is covered in rubbish!

It is perhaps the most brazen monument to criminality in Scotland. Offenders from far and wide arrive at it like reprobate pilgrims to some grotesque shrine and leave their offerings there before disappearing into the night.

The traditional contribution is a vanload of rubbish offloaded in its entirety. Old mattresses, fridge freezers, sofas, kitchen units, electrical appliances, building materials and stinking black bags often stuffed with hazardous substances are among the most popular items. But, really, anything goes.

At this vast unofficial tip stretching over multiple acres in rural Fife the only rule seems to be Don't Get Caught and, for years now, the chances of that have been vanishingly small.

Since 2017, only nine of the 114 cases of fly-tipping reported to procurators fiscal have resulted in court action – and those 114 cases represent a tiny fraction of the total incidents. Around 65,000 of them are reported in Scotland every year.

Indeed, the likelihood of punishment for despoiling the countryside with waste is so small – and the penalties so benign – that the illegal dumping of rubbish has become a major new area of development for organised crime gangs.

Why risk many years of jail time running drugs when there is excellent money to be made and minimal risks involved in running rubbish and dumping it where it does not belong?