Litter picker given £400 tipping fine after council finds his letter in rubbish
A man who is "forever collecting rubbish" has been handed a £400 fine for fly-tipping by a council after a letter addressed to him was found dumped in garbage.
Robert Stewart, 71, from Tunstall, Staffordshire, said he was "disgusted" by the fine from Stoke-on-Trent city council with the letter in rubbish dumped in a doorway. He says that he often reports fly-tipping and raises the issue with local MP Jonathan Gullis.
He insists he would "never, ever" dump rubbish and believes the letter must have been delivered to the wrong address. "I am absolutely disgusted. I am forever collecting rubbish, people in this area will back me up. I've received a letter prosecuting me for £400 for fly-tipping that hasn't been dumped by me," he said.
A pile of rubbish where the letter is believed to have been found (Pete Stonier / Stoke Sentinel)"They found a letter of mine in all this rubbish. I want to see proof of this letter. If they did, someone else received it and they disposed of it. I shred most of my letters, it's very rare that I put them in the bin. I wanted to go and look at the rubbish myself. But by the time I had walked around there it was gone.
"I'd love to see this letter. If it's a letter my wife and I are waiting for, like a hospital appointment, we'd like to know what this letter says! When I received the fine it broke me. All I've ever done is try to keep this area tidy. It seems underhanded. There's no way I'm going to pay it. I want them to get rid of the fine and apologise."
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Councillor Amjid Wazir, reported StokeonTrentLive, said: "Stoke-on-Trent City Council is maintaining its zero-tolerance approach to illegal dumping in our towns and with that comes enforcement. We are continuing with proactive patrolling and investigations. Once an area is under investigation and while evidence is being processed, we arrange for the removal of the waste with our cleansing teams.
"We cannot comment on individual ongoing investigations, however, should any fine remain unpaid the recipient will be invited to attend a cautioned interview where any evidence seized will be produced."
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