Camera catches a sofa being dumped in a roadside ditch in Burnham
The surveillance camera catches the moment the sofa is unloaded. (Image supplied by Buckinghamshire Council)
A surveillance camera recorded the dumping of a sofa in a roadside ditch in Burnham.
On Wednesday 5th August 2020, at Wycombe Magistrates Court, a 38 year old man of Grove Road, Burnham admitted fly tipping the waste in Crow Piece Lane, Burnham.
The court was told that just after 11.30am on Wednesday 19th February 2020, a surveillance camera at Crow Piece Lane captured images of a sofa being dumped from a car by a man. Investigators from the Waste Partnership for Buckinghamshire used the registration number to trace the keeper of the car who was found to be the 38 year old man.
The man said he had tried to take his old sofa to the local recycling centre during his lunch break, but it was closed. When he saw other waste dumped in a roadside ditch he thought it was all right to dump his sofa there, too.
The 38 year old man admitted the offence before being shown surveillance camera footage and took full responsibility for what he had done.
Magistrates fined the 38 year old man £1,017 for dumping the sofa and ordered him to pay £1,099 in clean up, investigation and legal costs. With a victim surcharge of £102. The total penalty came to £2,218.
Bill Chapple OBE, Buckinghamshire Council Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change, said: ‘It’s never a wise decision to think it’s OK to dump waste in a roadside ditch. You could easily be caught on camera, and the penalties are high!
What’s more, it’s a blot on our beautiful landscape, and we won’t tolerate it, especially as we’ve made it easy and free to dispose of household waste at all of our household recycling centres.‘
The case was brought by Buckinghamshire Council, one of the first such cases for the new unitary authority. Buckinghamshire Council has succeeded the Waste Partnership for Buckinghamshire which prosecuted a total of 756 cases costing offenders a total of £1,093,817.
*Source of article : Press release from Buckinghamshire Council.
