Fly-tippers ‘must face jail’ after million cases in a year

Councils demand harsher penalties as illegal waste carrier gangs continue to dump on ‘industrial scale’

SERIAL fly-tippers who ruin the countryside should be sent to prison, councils have said after the annual number of incidents rose to nearly a million.

No one convicted of fly-tipping has been given the maximum £50,000 fine or 12 months in prison since ministers introduced new guidelines in 2014, analysis has found.

That was despite a 40 per cent increase in fly-tipping incidents over five years to 997,553 last year, official figures show. Council leaders have called on the Government to review guidance given to magistrates so that fly-tippers can be handed harsher punishments.

Figures from the Local Government Association (LGA) reveal that only one in 450 cases leads to a prosecution, while more than 40 per cent of local authorities have not brought any prosecutions after 2012-13.

Just 25 custodial sentences were handed out by the courts. Of those, many were suspended, meaning the offender was spared having to go to prison.

Examples include a part-time forestry lecturer who in October last year was found guilty of fly-tipping waste including asbestos “on an industrial scale” on protected woodland in East Sussex.

Timothy Saunders, 44, admitted dumping an estimated 4,000 tons on a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, including rubble, tyres, sheet metal, barbed wire, radiators, fridges and microwave ovens. Saunders was given only a suspended sentence, along with a fine and a community order.

The cost to taxpayers of clearing up fly-tipping rose to £57million in 201718, according to the LGA.

It is claimed that the epidemic is being driven by gangs of unregistered waste carriers and the closure of recycling centres.

Previous analysis has shown that, with councils facing pressure on their budgets, most now charge for bulky and garden waste collections, which could encourage some people to fly-tip.

Earlier this year, it emerged that farmers were being forced to fortify their land with moats and anti-terrorism-style concrete blocks to combat organised crime gangs.

Countryside groups warned Britain risked being turned into a Mad Max landscape with farmers forced to deploy barbed wire on gates and fences, flood lights, CCTV and concrete-reinforced gates to combat fly-tippers.

In two of the most serious examples, 100 tons of commercial waste was abandoned on a Shropshire farm while 18 lorry loads were deposited on another in Essex which cost the farmers £38,000 to clear. The LGA said that the Government must now review guidance to the courts to ensure the worst fly-tipping offenders face tougher sentences.

If a case is serious enough to be sent to a crown court, the punishment can be an unlimited fine or up to five years in prison.

Martin Tett, chairman of the LGA’S environment board, said: “Consistent and hard-hitting prosecutions are needed to deter rogue operators and fly-tippers.

“Councils also need adequate funding to investigate incidents and ensure fly-tippers do not go unpunished.”