£400 fine for Boxing Day fly-tipper

A man caught on camera dumping bags of household waste at the side of the road on Boxing Day has been fined £400.

CCTV footage from a nearby business shows the man pulling up in a silver car on Barlow Drive, West Bromwich, and throwing bags from the boot onto a grass verge. The bags contained nappies, food, bottles and other household rubbish.

Sandwell Council’s Environmental Protection Team traced the man from his vehicle registration and issued him with a £400 fixed penalty notice last week. Sandwell Council’s cabinet member for public health and protection, Councillor Elaine Costigan, said:

“We’re grateful to the individual who reported this incident and helpfully uploaded the video footage to our MySandwell portal – where people can report fly-tipping and provide any evidence they have on who may be responsible.

“Every penny that we have to spend cleaning up after people who dump rubbish could be spent on other services. There’s no excuse for it – the tip is open every day, we have weekly bin collections in Sandwell and we provide an excellent bulky waste collection service.

“We’ve now issued over one hundred £400 fines for fly-tipping in Sandwell over the past 18 months or so. We won’t tolerate this and if we catch you, expect a big fine in the post.”