Fly tipper must pay £915 after pleading guilty

Fly tipper must pay £915 after pleading guilty

8 December 2011

Fly tipper must pay £915 after pleading guilty

A 24 year old man has pleaded guilty at Norwich Magistrate’s Court today for fly-tipping offences, which he carried out on Croxton Heath in August of this year.

Martin Walsh of Milton Place, Thetford, pleaded guilty to fly-tipping a mattress, a fridge, a kitchen table, a sofa, a wooden cabinet, a coffee table, four kitchen chairs, a snooker table, four dining chairs, one easy chair, four black bags containing clothing, a Hoover vacuum cleaner, a black office chair and a television cabinet.

He was fined £400 and ordered to pay £500 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

Mr Walsh was caught after a vigilant resident saw his van reversing up a narrow track at Croxton Heath. He thought the van looked suspicious and was so concerned that he wrote down the number plate and reported it to Breckland Council.

When enforcement officers visited the lane they found that a van-load of rubbish had been dumped there.  The Council worked closely with Norfolk Police to trace Mr Walsh to an address in Thetford. At the time of the fly-tip he had been employed by the British Heart Foundation to collect unwanted furniture items from the Foundation in Cambridge and take them to the Cambridge tip. Instead of taking it to a legal waste unit he dumped it on Croxton Heath, Wretham.

Councillor Paul Claussen, Executive Member for Planning and Environmental Awareness said: "These prosecutions demonstrate that the council will continue to use enforcement action to tackle fly tipping. Cleaning up after fly-tippers costs the council and local landowners thousands of pounds each year and damages our precious green countryside. The council will not tolerate that, and we will prosecute offenders. I would like to thank those who brought this crime to our attention and I would encourage others to report environmental offences so that we can take action."