Scrap dealer's fury at noise prosecution

A noisy scrap dealer who shattered the peace of Midland streets with the blare from a bugle-like horn is fuming after being hit with a bill of almost £400 by the courts.

John Evans was hauled before magistrates by Stafford Borough Council chiefs who said he was disturbing residents – especially shiftworkers like nurses and firefighters – from their sleep.

The council is cracking down on scrap merchants who use loudhailers.

They claim as many as seven or eight scrap collectors can visit the same street on a single day.

Mr Evans,of Foxglove Walk, Hednesford, pleaded guilty by letter to causing noise pollution. But he said he was only trying to earn a living and has been singled out unfairly by the authority.

Magistrates heard the local authority had received one complaint about Mr Evans, from someone irritated by his din.

They heard noisy scrap dealers had caused problems throughout the area for people trying to sleep in the day, such as night shift workers including police officers and nurses.

Leigh Collingridge, for the authority, said a council environmental officer had heard a "loud trumpet-like noise through a loudspeaker" played continually from a pick-up truck in Torrington Avenue in Stafford's Baswich area on June 23. Mr Evans was ordered to pay a £100 fine and £295 court costs. In the letter read out to the court he said he had stopped sounding the horn. But he pointed out that ice cream vans were also noisy yet were never stopped.

He is aggrieved at being slapped with a prosecution without a caution or any prior warning.

He was spotted by a council officer who took down his registration number and reported him.

The father-of three, who has since removed the offending loudspeaker, said: "It doesn't seem fair. I would have taken it down immediately if I had been told – there was no need to drag me to court. I'm a legitmate trader with an operator's licence, while many others are not. I pay £1,000 business insurance and all my taxes. £400 is a lot of money to me."

He added: "Ice cream vans are allowed to play music through a loud speaker, politicans can do it at elections, even the Round Table use a loud hailer on their sleighs at Christmas. Where's the justice for me?"

In June three scrap metal dealers – from Bilston, Wednesbury and Walsall – were fined at Stafford for similar offences.

Borough council spokesman Will Conahagn said today: "Although we receive many complaints, it is rare that these cases reach court because of the difficulty of finding witnesses willing to give evidence."

Council chiefs in Sandwell said they had made no prosecutions this year.