Woman ends up in court after paying Facebook fly tipper to remove her rubbish
Dudley Council has warned residents not to pay strangers on social media to remove rubbish after it landed a woman in court.
Jenny Humphries paid someone £40 on Facebook to remove bin bags from her Halesowen home.
But the 39-year-old ended up being prosecuted when the rubbish was discovered dumped by a river and letters inside the bin bags traced it back to her address.
Humphries appeared at Dudley Magistrates Court last week, where she admitted an offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 of failing to ensure waste was transferred to an authorised person.
The court heard a walker reported waste dumped on the banks of the River Stour on Hayseech Road, Halesowen, on January 7 last year.
Dudley Council waste enforcement officers visited the scene and discovered letters within the rubbish with an address in Sunbury Road, Halesowen.
Humphries, of Sunbury Road, was sentenced to a conditional discharge for 12 months and ordered to pay a total of £266 in court costs.
Edward Bradford, Head of Neighbourhood Services at Dudley Council, said: "This case shows the dangers of paying someone you don’t know over social media to take away rubbish from your home.
"The law states people have to be authorised to remove waste from domestic properties, to reduce the chance of it being fly-tipped."
He added: "The real criminal here is the fly-tipper. But we can’t stress enough that if you don’t do the checks and the rubbish ends up getting dumped, as in this case, it can be a costly affair. She may have thought she had got a good deal – but ultimately it has ended up with a day in court.
"If you are paying someone to remove rubbish for you, take the time to check they are authorised before handing over any cash."
