Fly-tipper is hit with a fine and £1,600 costs
CRACKDOWN ON ROGUE
A FLY-TIPPER who arranged to collect waste via Facebook then dumped it illegally, has been fined.
Keith Thornton, owner of KT Gardening & Removal Services, pleaded not guilty to two charges of depositing-controlled waste on land without a permit, and one of illegally transporting controlled waste.
But he was convicted of all three offences following a trial at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court.
Thornton, 33, of Tynemouth Road, Jarrow, was charged after reports of fly-tipping, on Whitehouse Road, in Scotswood, Newcastle, and Cranberry Bog Road in Birtley, in May, were investigated jointly by Newcastle City Council and Gateshead Council.
Evidence was found in the waste relating to an address in Gateshead, where Thornton had previously collected waste.
Among the waste discovered was plastic bags, a double bed base, mattress, carpets, laminated flooring, a mop bucket and a kitchen bin.
Customers from Gateshead had approached Thornton via Facebook and paid £60 on collection of the rubbish.
Thornton was fined £720 and ordered to pay a £72 victim surcharge and costs of £1,600.92.
A destruction order was also made on his seized Ford Transit van.
Another man was also fined having pleaded guilty to three offences relating to commercial waste disposal.
Richard Bennett, 57, of Rosedale Court, Newcastle, was brought before the court after a member of the public in Byker saw waste being deposited from a van in a communal residential bin in November last year.
An investigation found the waste had come from a business based at Coquet Street.
Newcastle City Council’s environmental protection officers discovered the business had approached a waste carrier they had come across online called R and D Rubbish and Waste Services and paid Bennett £50 to deal with their waste.
On March 22 this year, Bennett was interviewed under caution and denied all knowledge of the business before walking out of the interview.
But at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court,
he entered guilty pleas and was fined £320 for the illegal depositing of waste.
He received no further penalty for two other charges of engaging in commercial practice which was misleading and illegally transporting controlled waste.
He was also ordered to pay £276.38 in costs.
Newcastle’s Coun Nick Kemp, said: “Due to diligent members of the public and thorough investigative work by our staff, these two individuals have been shown that waste crime will not be tolerated. The sentences handed out by the court demonstrates once again that people that flout the regulations will be hit hard and I hope the fines deter others from illegally dumping waste. I would remind people that they must ensure anyone who takes their waste is authorised.”