Waste collectors who dumped rubbish at 100-tonne fly-tip in Havant ordered to pay thousands in compensation
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Leather sofas and sacks of brick taken in 'good faith' from a Portsmouth church were found among the huge fly-tip at Hulbert Road, off the A3 at Havant.
Some electrical items on the 40 sq m site had gone into a nearby stream, prosecutor Laura King revealed as three men were in court.
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Hide AdToday Sidney Simpson, Daniel Worboys and Jason Newman each admitted dumping waste at what was described to them as a ‘burn site’ – but what was in truth an illegal fly-tip.
‘Significant damage to the environment’
Magistrate Malcolm Hogg, who said there had been ‘significant damage to the environment’, said: ‘This is a very serious matter, fly-tipping is the scourge of the countryside.’
Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court heard the defendants were charged around £80-£100 a time to use the field by an unnamed man in his 30s who locked and unlocked a gate for them. It was about £50-£60 cheaper than a licensed facility.
Firefighters uncovered 40 separate fly-tip sites on the field when they battled a blaze on there in September last year, calling in the Environment Agency to investigate.
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Hide AdAgency officers sifted through the ‘vast’ field for a month separating it into 16 zones before tracing it back to several men who had charged customers to tip the waste.
Clean-up costs hit £90,000 for landowner
Landowner Complete Land Management Limited, which was not implicated in court, spent £87,326 on clearing up, plus £3,042 on managing the clean-up operation.
Among them was Sidney Simpson, 42, from S&S Clearances who charged King’s Church in Somers Road £200 to take away brick and rubble, leather sofas, wood, plastic boxes and paperwork.
In a statement read in court, pastor Gareth Matthews said: ‘I feel really upset, we wanted the waste deposited in a safe and responsible manner.
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Hide Ad‘I’m shocked to see the waste when we paid the man in good faith.’
Simpson, who said he struggled to read and write and had saved just £60 by using the illegal site, admitted paying a man he refused to identify £100 to use the site.
He said: ‘I accept what I’ve done but I have also gone to the church and refunded the church what I charged them in the form of a donation.’
Defendants told land was a ‘burn site’
Simpson, who represented himself, said he was told the area was a burn site and added: ‘I don’t plan on making the same mistake again, it’s quite scary.’
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Hide AdAll three defendants admitted depositing waste without a permit, not using a waste transfer notice, and failing to give the Environment Agency details when requested.
A fourth man denied dumping waste in Hulbert Road and Pyle Lane, in Horndean, and will appear in court on September 10.
A spokesman for the Environment Agency, said: ‘Their actions showed blatant disregard for the environment. These waste criminals also undermine legitimate businesses.
‘In cases like this, we have no hesitation in prosecuting those involved as we want to make sure that waste crime doesn’t pay.
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Hide Ad‘We all have a part to play in stopping waste crime. We encourage the public to ask to see their waste collector’s waste carriers’ registration and insist on a waste transfer note, which states where they are taking the waste to be disposed.’
Three men who tried to save cash told to pay £3,500
MAGISTRATES ordered the fly-tippers to pay out thousands of pounds.
Dad-of-three Sidney Simpson, 42, of Haslemere Road, Southsea, was handed a 12-week sentence suspended for a year with £1,000 compensation to pay to the landowner.
Father-of-three Daniel Worboys, who was running Rubbish and Waste Clearance Portsmouth while its owner was in jail, took two truckloads charging four customers £70-£80 each.
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Hide AdHe dumped a mattress, flooring, a sink, cardboard, paperwork, rubble, paving slabs, business waste from a car body workshop and household items.
Facebook review helped catch one fly-tipper
Deborah Long unsuspectingly used Worboys to collect her waste. Officers traced him after she left a positive review on Facebook under which Worboys thanked her for the comment.
But after she was shown how her rubbish was left she said: ‘I feel angry and disappointed that my rubbish has been dumped in a field. We try to recycle as much as we can and feel sick that this man has done this.’
Worboys, 31, of Falmouth Road, Paulsgrove, received a 12-week jail term suspended for a year. He must pay £1,500 compensation.
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Hide AdSingle dad-of-three Jason Newman from What a Load of Rubbish made one trip dumping a fridge, packaging and household items from houses in Portsmouth and Fratton – and paperwork with his own name.
The items were taken from a Housing Association and a landlord as part of a house clearance
Newman used the site after getting a knock on his window at a layby offering him a cheap tip.
Newman, 48, of Conan Road, North End, must pay £1,000 compensation and received a 12-week jail term suspended for a year.
The three men are not responsible for all of the 100 tonnes of waste and said they did not know the site was not licensed. Newman and Simpson said they struggle to read or write.