Fly-tipper caught on camera ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work
A man has been sentenced to 150 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay £735 for fly-tipping, following an investigation by Manchester City Council.
Cornel Pascu, of Hazelbottom Road, Cheetham, pleaded guilty to three fly-tipping offences, after a council CCTV camera captured waste being dumped from the boot of his vehicle on three separate occasions in June 2016.
On all three occasions, at least six bags of household waste were removed from the boot of Pascu’s vehicle and left on the ground, on Brightside Road, Crumpsall.
The CCTV camera was erected after complaints about the fly-tipping of waste on Brightside Road and a petition signed by 40 local residents.
An investigating officer from the council’s Environmental Crimes team gathered evidence from the scene, including letters to Pascu’s home address.
The officer then visited Pascu’s address and found that the vehicle captured on CCTV in the fly-tipping incidents was parked on the driveway.
Pascu, 40, was interviewed under caution and admitted that his vehicle had been used to fly-tip domestic waste from his property, but denied that he was driving the vehicle at the time of the incidents.
He was prosecuted under Section 33(5) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, which states that the owner of a vehicle involved in a fly-tipping incident can be held responsible, whether or not they have given any instructions for the rubbish to be dumped.
After Pascu failed to attend a hearing on January 4, 2017, a warrant was issued to bring him to Manchester Magistrates Court to face the charges on January 11.
He entered guilty pleas to all three fly-tipping offences and in addition to a community punishment order of 150 hours unpaid work, was ordered to pay court costs of £650, plus a Victim Surcharge of £85.
Executive member for neighbourhoods, Cllr Nigel Murphy, said: “I’d like to thank the Crumpsall residents who reported these offences to us and our Environmental Crimes team for their hard work in securing another fly-tipping prosecution.
“Pascu treated the people of Brightside Road with contempt and I’m absolutely delighted that he has been caught and punished for these offences.
“We offer a free annual bulky waste collection to all Manchester residents – and with three household waste recycling centres in the city, part of a network of 20 such centres across Greater Manchester, it’s clear that there is never any excuse for fly-tipping.
“We will continue to use mobile CCTV technology to monitor known fly-tipping hotspots around the clock. As this prosecution shows, criminals who think they can get away with abusing our neighbourhoods in this way need to think again.”
