Distinctive dog tattoo collars rogue Wearside scrap man

Lewis Temple gave false details to enforcement officers when he was pulled over in Newcastle’s West End – but identified after photos on his public Facebook page were matched to body camera images of him bare-chested and displaying a large, distinctive dog tattoo.

Newcastle City Council enforcement officers were driving down the city’s Westgate Road on June 24 last year when they spotted a van overladen with scrap metal.

Passenger Liam Blackburn, 26, of Churchside Gardens, Houghton, was asked for his waste carrier’s licence, but told officers to speak to the driver, who showed a photograph on his mobile phone of what he claimed was his waste carrier’s card, with the name ‘Glenn’.

Checks of the Environment Agency’s on-line public register of authorised waste carriers showed no record of the name, address or number on the card.

Police confirmed the van’s registered keeper was Lewis Temple, 25, of Chilton Avenue, Fence Houses, and further searches of the EA register showed neither Blackburn nor Temple were authorised waste carriers.

Neither Blackburn nor Temple attended court but Temple pleaded guilty by post to transporting waste without being registered and to providing false or misleading information to an officer. He offered no mitigation.

Blackburn was convicted in his absence of transporting waste without being registered. He was fined £180, with £121.55 costs and a £34 victim surcharge – a total of £335.55.

Temple was fined £120 for each offence, with £121.55 costs and a £34 surcharge – a total of £395.55.

Roy Harris, Newcastle City Council’s environmental protection manager, said: “If you transport waste as part of a trade or business then you must be registered.

“And if you are a household or business then you must take all reasonable measures to ensure that your rubbish – including scrap metal – is only handed over to legitimate, registered waste carriers.

“Do not leave waste or scrap metal out for anyone to take away as you won’t know who takes it, whether they’ re legally allowed to transport it, or what they’ll do with it – which could include blighting your community by fly-tipping.”

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