A serial fly-tipper from Birmingham has been ordered to pay nearly £4,000 after he was caught on camera dumping household waste outside a bingo hall in East London. Martin Stokes, 30, of Endwood Court Road, Birmingham, was fined £3,905 for leaving a large pile of rubbish, including mattresses and a fridge-freezer, outside Buzz Bingo Hall in Barkingside.
CCTV footage captures the offence
Footage from the venue's CCTV showed a yellow van entering the car park. The male driver and a passenger got out, pulled waste from the van, dumped it in the car park, and drove off hastily. Among the items left were mattresses, a fridge-freezer, glass panels, and cardboard. The footage captured the van's licence plate, which Redbridge Council officers traced to Stokes.
Ignored penalty leads to prosecution
Stokes ignored a £1,000 fixed penalty notice for fly-tipping and failed to respond to requests to name the driver, leading to criminal charges. He failed to appear at Barkingside Magistrates' Court on his trial date of June 16, so the case was heard in his absence. He was found guilty of fly-tipping and failing to name the driver. The court ordered him to pay a fine, court and council costs, and clean-up costs to Buzz Bingo, totalling £3,905.
Council warns against fly-tipping
Councillor Sunny Brar, Redbridge's cabinet member for enforcement, community safety and cohesion, said: "This prosecution should serve as a warning that fly-tipping will not be tolerated in Redbridge. We will use the full force of the law to track down and prosecute offenders, ensuring residents' money is invested in our communities rather than wasted on cleaning up illegal dumping."
Previous offences revealed
During their investigation, Redbridge officers discovered that Stokes had been prosecuted last year for two fly-tipping offences in the London borough, resulting in fines totalling more than £2,000. The latest fine brings his total penalties to over £5,900.
