Flytipper Pleads Guilty After Caught Red-Handed On CCTV
Written by HFM News on 16th September 2021
A man caught on covert CCTV fly-tipping on a country lane in the Harborough District has been ordered by a court to pay out nearly £4,500.
Vincent Smith was filmed dumping wooden fencing on Houghton Lane near the village of Stoughton last February and was traced through his tipper truck’s registration number.
Smith, 40, of New Romney Crescent, Leicester pleaded guilty to flytipping at Leicester Magistrates’ Court yesterday after being prosecuted by the District Council, who had installed the camera at the flytipping hotspot.
He was fined £1,661 by the court, with a £166 surcharge, and ordered to pay costs of £2,640.
Pic: Harborough District Council
Smith originally denied the offence when questioned by the Council, claiming that someone had ‘copied his vehicle identity’, but the CCTV footage, which showed a bearded man wearing a distinctive earring, clearly identified him as the driver.
The court also heard that Smith was a repeat offender who had previously received a fixed penalty notice from the Council on 12 December 2019 for fly-tipping in Scraptoft.
In mitigation, Smith accepted it was him, and said he was “embarrassed” and regrets it happened. He said he had initially denied the offence due to money concerns.
Cllr Jonathan Bateman, Harborough District Council’s Cabinet lead for environmental services, said: “This is a fantastic result and sends out a loud and clear message that if you illegally dispose of waste in our district we will use the full power of the law against you. I’d like to congratulate our prosecution team, and say a big thank you to the Police who helped speed up this outcome by executing warrants for arrest when the defendant previously failed to turn up to a court hearing. We will not tolerate fly-tipping and this shows how big the financial penalties can be if you flout the law.”
This latest prosecution follows a number of fixed penalty notices – four since April 2021 – issued by Harborough District Council for fly-tipping in recent years, as well as successful court cases, forming part of its award-winning Tip Off campaign to crackdown on the illegal dumping of waste.
The campaign has resulted in a significant reduction in fly-tipping in the district over the past two-years, bucking the national trend.
