A tiler from Salford who dumped buckets of rubbish in a city street has been handed a £1,400 bill.
Mark Andrew, 42, of Asten Fold, Salford, left seven large buckets of broken tiles and building waste on land at Thurlow Street, Salford which had to be removed by Salford City Council.
Mr Andrew apologised and agreed that public money could be better spent than on cleaning up after him.
He pleaded guilty to illegally dumping waste on land when he appeared at Salford and Manchester magistrates court on Wednesday 19 August.
He was fined £580, and made to pay costs of £848.04 with a victim surcharge of £58.
The court heard that Salford City Council CCTV operatives recorded Mr Andrew pulling up in his van and dumping the seven buckets of waste just before 3pm in the afternoon.
Mr Andrew admitted to an environmental crime officer that he had dumped the waste and apologised saying he had not planned to do so.
“He had gone to pick up tiles but the load was too big to fit in his van so “stupidly” he got rid of the waste in the street instead of taking it to the tip as he normally did.
“I’m sure the money could be spent a lot more wisely than picking up rubbish after me,” he told the environmental crime officer in interview.
The magistrate confirmed that the aggravating feature of the case was that Mr Andrew had got the waste from a building job which he had been paid £500 for, so he should have disposed if it correctly.
Speaking after the case Councillor Gena Merrett, assistant mayor for housing and environment, said: “Mr Andrew is correct to say scarce public funds could be better spent on services rather than cleaning up after people who dump rubbish in our streets. I sincerely hope he has learnt his lesson from this and that this acts as a warning to others to dispose of waste properly.”
Salford City Council receives 283 reports every month of incidents of illegal dumping/fly-tipping and spends approximately £140,000 every year investigating and clearing up after flytippers. This cost is met by the council tax and business rate payers of Salford.
This prosecution is as a result of the on-going city wide ‘Operation Pandora’ which has so far prosecuted 37 offenders resulting in fines of more than £27,000.
