Tree surgeon fined £7k for fly-tipping waste

A TREE surgeon has been hit with a nearly £7,000 fine and had his vehicle crushed for illegally dumping hazardous construction waste and other offences.

Daniel Waters, 33, of Old Dairy, Amesbury, pleaded guilty at Salisbury Magistrates’ court to fly-tipping hazardous rubbish on Collingbourne Ducis farmland.

Waters also failed to provide waste transfer notes to Wiltshire Council when he was requested to do so.

A spokesman for the local authority said: “Mr Waters was fined a total of £6,980.80 including costs, and the vehicle he used to fly-tip the waste, which has been seized by the council, was authorised for disposal by the magistrates, as a result of the criminal investigation conducted by the council’s environmental enforcement officers.

“The vehicle will have the hazardous materials removed, and any reusable parts will be salvaged before it is crushed and recycled in the coming weeks.”

The court heard on Tuesday how Waters used his tipper truck to collect hazardous construction waste that contained asbestos from a property in Andover, and then flytipped it on private farmland in Collingbourne Ducis.

The vehicle used in the fly-tip was seized by Wiltshire Police at the request of the council.

Once seized, the vehicle was stored securely until the court hearing, where magistrates authorised its destruction.

In addition to this, Mr Waters failed to provide the council with any of his waste transfer notes for his business, DW Tree Services, which would have shown how he was lawfully disposing of his waste.