Sunderland flytipper who was running illegal waste business landed with £760 court bill

The offence cost David Klein more than £750 after magistrates in Sunderland heard there had been several incidents of rubbish being dumped in the Richmond Street area of the Sheepfolds Industrial Estate between April and October last year - including boiler packaging and plastic pipework.

Michelle Irving, prosecuting for Sunderland City Council, said a witness had come forward in October to report seeing a man dumping two containers full of plastic waste and a bag of rubbish.

The same vehicle had been caught on CCTV in November and the registered keeper, Klein, was invited to attend an interview.

He had initially denied being responsible, saying he had only been picking up scrap metal which he had taken to a yard in Hendon, but confronted with CCTV footage admitted being responsible for dumping containers on both occasions.

He had been asked to provide copies of the last two years’ waste transfer notes that he was required to keep when running a waste transfer business, but had failed to do so.

Klein, 66, of Lichfield Road, Southwick, admitted one charge of flytipping and one of failing to produce the required information.

Jason Smith, defending, said Klein had had an arrangement with a number of plumbers to collect and sort their waste.

“He would go along, have a look at the waste, take away what he could salvage and make some money from,” said Mr Smith.

“The remainder of it, he would put at the side of the road because he thought ‘I am not going to make it money out of it, I will leave it there.’

“He accepts responsibility for that, he accepts actually he was doing something he really would have known he should not have done.

“He could not afford to dispose of it. He was only making about £40 a week.

“He accepts wholeheartedly that he did not have a waste transfer licence. He did previously have one but it had expired before the commission of these offences.”

Klein was fined £320, and ordered to pay £120 court costs, £288.03 to cover the cost of cleaning up both incidents of dumping, and a £32 victim surcharge, a total of £760.03.

The Echo has teamed up with the city council for our Clean Streets campaign, which aims to tackle the blight of litter on our streets.

Coun Amy Wilson, Sunderland City Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, said: “It’s not appropriate for any residents or businesses to think they can dump their waste wherever they like.

“The vast majority of people want to see a clean and green city, and I would like to thank everybody who does care for our city and its environment.

“But, for those that don’t take responsibility for their waste then the council does investigate and it does prosecute.”

Anyone who sees fly-tipping or fly-tippers can contact the council anonymously at: https://www.sunderland.gov.uk/article/12416/Report-fly-tipping