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Reporter: Ask Bury
Date online: 16 June 2007

Despite various recent prosecutions in Bury it seems that people are still failing to ensure that waste is transferred to an authorised carrier and paying the consequences by being charged with flytipping.

Khalid Mehmood an ice cream seller aged 19 and from Woodgate Street, Bolton has lived in the UK for the past two to three years and does not speak fluent English.  His main language is Urdu, he appeared in court on June 13 with the benefit of an interpreter to plead guilty to flytipping. He was fined £200 and £100 for the duty of care offence and was ordered to pay £89 in compensation and £300 in costs, totalling £689.00 which he must pay at £50.00 per month. 

The dumped waste was found deposited on land in Manor Street in November last year.  It consisted of cardboard, carpets, laminate flooring, plastic, paper and general household waste, including black bin liners full of waste. Following a complaint to the council’s environmental services department an investigating officer visited and took away evidence of the flytipping.

On 20 November 2006, Mr Mehmood was interviewed under caution by Investigating Officers in the presence of a family member and an interpreter who was arranged to attend the interview by the Investigating Officers, to translate the conversation into Urdu.  During the course of the interview, Mr Mehmood accepted that certain of the waste was his, and told officers that he had paid £10 for his waste to be taken away by a man in a van who he had seen removing other waste from another property in the back street to his property.  Mr Mehmood stated that he thought the man would be taking the waste to a tip.  He confirmed that he did not ask if the man was licensed or had authority to transfer waste.

By his actions, Khalid Mehmood failed to take reasonable steps to ensure that waste belonging to him was transferred and deposited lawfully, and knowingly caused controlled waste to be deposited on land that is not properly licensed for that purpose.

Councillor Dorothy Gunther Executive Member for Environment and Transport said; "It’s unfortunate that people still seem to be giving their waste to these eco-criminals who take the money and dump the waste where they please. Illegal dumping of waste costs the council thousands of pounds each year and we need it to stop, and taking away their business is the only way we can drive these people out of town."