Householder caught fly-tipping and fined £400

Fixed Notice Penalties send the clear message "we will fine or prosecute" fly-tippers, Wiltshire Council said

A man from Wiltshire has been caught fly-tipping, because his actions were recorded on a driver's dashcam.

The man from Devizes was seen dumping household waste on land near Roundway Hill Business Centre in Devizes.

A driver captured the action on their dashcam in March and noted down the offender's car registration.

Wiltshire Council officers were then able to track down the culprit, who has since apologised and paid a £400 fixed penalty notice (FPN) fine.

Witnesses are entitled to claim a financial reward via the council's We're Targeting Fly-tippers campaign, to encourage people to provide information leading to the payment of a FPN, or successful prosecution.

In a separate case in Melksham, a businessman was issued with fixed penalties totalling £700 after he was captured on CCTV dumping bags of construction waste and building foam in another company's recycling bins without their permission.

The business that owned the bins was forced to pay for them to be cleared of the contaminated waste until the offender was caught.

Wiltshire Council said it typically spends £2m per year collecting fly-tipped waste and litter and disposing of it properly.

Councillor Nick Holden thanked the public for helping catch the offenders and said they were eligible for a reward

Nick Holder, cabinet member for highways, said: "We're committed to tackling fly-tipping here in Wiltshire, but we also need help from the public to catch offenders."

"Thanks to our investment in extra officers and equipment such as cameras, we have already reduced fly-tipping in the county from 7.4 incidents per thousand residents to 5.1 incidents, and we are focused on continuing this trend."