VIDEO: Fly-tipper caught on camera
A HIDDEN spy camera caught a fly-tipper red-handed dumping waste at a troubled beauty spot.
Gary Colledge and an unknown man were captured on CCTV lobbing building waste and rubble.
Council chiefs set up a hidden camera at the site which caught Colledge in the act and they have now released the footage in a bid to deter others from illegally dumping waste.
Colledge, 25, stood trial after he denied breaching envorinmental laws by dumping the waste on land at Shotton Colliery pond, a site that has been blighted by anti-social behaviour. But after a two-hour hearing at Peterlee Magistrates’ Court, he was found guilty of depositing waste without a permit.
Today Steve Maitland, chairman of Shotton and District Angling Club, which leases the land around the pond from Durham County Council, revealed that fly-tipping at the site is a weekly occurance.
He said he hoped the sentence would be a lesson to Colledge, of Eden Lane, Peterlee, but said he thought the fine would have been higher.
Steve, from Shotton, said: “Hopefully all the other fly-tippers will stay away from the area and this will be a lesson to Colledge.
“I am surprised that the fine is not higher though, as there are anti-flytipping signs at the site that say they can be fined up to £5,000 or six months in prison.”
Colledge admitted dumping the waste, but claimed he had been given permission to use it to fill potholes.
He said that on the day of the incident he had been approached by a man who had asked if Colledge could use the rubble, which was in the back of his van, to fill a hole on the track leading to the pond.
But the council confirmed he did not have permission.
And Mr Maitland said: “He shouldn’t have been on the pond road with a vehicle in the first place.”
Colledge was fined £165 and ordered to pay costs of £630 and a £15 victim surcharge.
During 2011/12, there were 5,904 reported flytipping incidents in County Durham, costing the county council £622,965.
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Weather for Hartlepool
Tuesday 21 May 2013
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