CCTV catches fly tippers

Story link: CCTV catches fly tippers by David Masters

Four people aged between 25 and 63 were surprised to find their local recycling centre closed in Wigan last Boxing day. But instead of returning home with all of their Christmas waste, they decided that being the season of good will that they would just leave a gift for staff to come back to.

Despite all of the signs and notices, the group simply dumped the rubbish outside of the centres gates and left to carry on with the season’s celebrations. However they did not count on the CCTV working and the tapes being passed onto the councils anti fly tipping team, who traced the fly tippers through the car registrations numbers.

All four appeared in court recently and pleaded guilty, they were each fined £200 and £500 in order to meet the costs incurred by the councils clean up, legal and the investigation teams.

These people are the first to be prosecuted under the new environmental protection act. This has been brought in to save council money in the clean process. But also to prevent the fly tippers getting away with dumping almost anything, anywhere that takes their fancy.

CCTV is valuable tool in catching this sort activity, as the fly tippers are not like to do anything while there are people around, and places like tips and recycling centres cannot be justified in being staffed 24/7, but CCTV can.