My £240 fine for leaving box by overflowing bin

A GRANNY was slapped with a £240 fine for “fly-tipping” after leaving a cardboard box next to an overflowing recycling bin.

Janet Bocci, 60, was visited by an officer after he spotted her name and address on the box.

“He issued me with a fine,” she said. “It has cost me more than the item I bought in the first place.”

The mum-of-two, who has seven grandchildren, explained she left the box between bins outside Tesco in Cambridge.

“I received a record player and I had a big box left so I took it to the recycling bins,” she said.

“When I got there they were all full up so I just put it down in the middle of the two bins.

“On Saturday, I had an officer come round and he read me my rights. He said, ‘We have got evidence of fly-tipping’.

“They showed me the pictures and asked me some questions.”

Son-in-law Mark Burgess tried to explain her case to council officers but failed to have the fine rescinded. Now Janet has had to Janet Bocci with her fine at the bins where she left the cardboard box ask Mark to pay the fine as she suffers with rheumatoid arthritis and relies on disability benefits.

She added: “The only thing you can do is go to court – which means more money. “It’s pay up or shut up. “I think I’m being made a scapegoat for people who do fly-tipping in a big way.”

Since May last year, local authorities have been allowed to issue fines of between £150 and £400 to those caught in the act of fly-tipping, instead of having to take them to court.

In January it was revealed Cambridge City Council had issued nearly £5,000 of fines for fly-tipping incidents over the previous eight months.

A council spokesman said: “Tackling fly-tipping is a priority for the council. In 2016, new measures were introduced to deal with small scale fly-tipping.”