Hauled to court over wrong colour bin bags

USING the wrong colour bin bags is an easy mistake to make – and one, you might assume, that should not cause too many problems.

But for beauty salon owner Susan Le Poidevin, the error landed her in court.

The 50-year-old was ‘grilled’ for several hours by council officers after her mother, 71, mistakenly put some rubbish out in a black bin bag while tidying the salon.

Officials told Mrs Le Poidevin she had to use clear bags as these are specifically for commercial waste. To her shock, they decided to prosecute her for fly-tipping and she was hauled before a court in June where she denied the offence.

Mrs Le Poidevin was not even at the Tan & Beauty salon in Selly Oak, Birmingham, when her mother was cleaning up last December as a favour. But the council said that as the owner she was legally responsible for waste disposal.

The mother of two said: ‘I don’t deny that was our rubbish but I’m not guilty of fly- tipping. My mum was pottering around the store that day doing some tidying up and she put a black bin bag outside in the designated spot ... I don’t blame her, everyone makes mistakes.’

Mrs Le Poidevin said her meeting with Birmingham council had been ‘recorded like it was a police interview’. She added: ‘If they had given me a fine, I would have been annoyed but I would have just paid it ... I ended up in court but I’m going to fight this as a matter of principle.’

Mrs Le Poidevin is due to appear before Birmingham magistrates on August 21.

A council spokesman said it was unable to comment on active legal cases.