Mackworth woman hit with £1,455 fly tipping fine

A woman from Mackworth, Derby has pleaded guilty to three offences in relation to a fly tipping incident which took place on a field off Derby Road, Aston on Trent.

She received fines of £733 and was ordered to pay costs of £649, and a victim surcharge of £73, totalling £1,455 all to be paid within 28 days.

In February 2020, a large accumulation of furniture, white goods and mixed household waste was reported to South Derbyshire District Council by Aston on Trent Parish Council as having been dumped at the entrance to a farmer’s field.

The Council's Community Safety Enforcement Team identified that the waste had originated from a property in Mackworth. The owner of the house failed to respond to officers’ requests for information and failed to appear for invitations to interview.

In court she admitted having paid someone she found on social media to remove the waste and having ‘buried her head in the sand’ by ignoring Council officers’ demands for information.

Councillor Stephen Taylor, Chair of the Councils’ Environment and Development Service Committee said “Everybody has a legal duty to make sure that waste they produce is disposed of properly. This individual made no effort to check that the person who was taking her waste was a lawful operator.

“Just as importantly, this case shows that the Council is willing to take legal action to help stop fly tipping on farmer’s land. We know that this is a huge cost to the farming community, but this shows that we can work with landowners to stop it and punish offenders.”

Fly tipping offences increased significantly during 2020/21 and the Council’s Community Safety Enforcement Team has been vigorously pursuing offenders. Since April of this year the average monthly incidents of fly tipping has halved. 

9 December 2021