Leiston bush camouflage man given dog mess advice

Andrew Hawes said he has had personalised t-shirts made

A man who hides in bushes in order to catch people not clearing up their dogs' mess has been given advice to help him catch offenders.

Andrew Hawes, from Leiston, Suffolk, dresses in camouflage to photograph culprits and report them.

He said officers from Environmental Health and Suffolk Police had given him training in handling situations.

"Now they've told me it's not against the law, I'm really going to go after them," he said.

"I'm going big on it now. I've got personalised t-shirts and everything."

Mr Hawes, a lorry driver and father of four, used 10 days of holiday to stake out bushes around Leiston and clamp down on the problem of dog mess.

Mr Hawes has been told to record "proper written statements"

He said a Facebook name-and-shame page had attracted more than 1,150 fans, and he had received a lot of support from people "fed up with the plight of dog mess".

"A lady from Wakefield wrote a letter to say thank you for starting the campaign. She supports it because she slipped over on some mess and got quite badly injured," he said.

Mr Hawes said he had been advised to put together "proper written statements of everything that's going on" and had been given an information pack.

A Suffolk Coastal District Council spokeswoman said the authority was working with police to provide advice on the correct way of reporting incidents of dog fouling

"While we appreciate the assistance of the public when dealing with these incidents, we must ensure that members of the community do so safely and that evidence is recorded appropriately so we can act on any incidents," she added.