Bristol man fined nearly £2,000 over fly-tipping

A man has been ordered to pay nearly £2,000 in fines and costs following a fly-tipping incident.

Paperwork bearing Jae Grier's home address and that of his shop were found among rubbish dumped in Wick, South Gloucestershire, in July 2022.

The 24-year-old told police he had paid £350 to have the waste removed during a store refurbishment by "cold callers".

South Gloucestershire Council said it has a "zero-tolerance approach" to fly-tipping.

Grier, of Snowberry Walk in St George, Bristol was prosecuted by the council for waste offences.

A council statement said he failed to appear at Bristol Magistrates Court when summonsed in May 2023 but handed himself into the courts on Monday after a warrant was issued for his arrest.

He was found guilty of waste duty of care offences and handed a £461 fine, ordered to pay £891 in costs and £600 in compensation, a total of £1,952.

The court heard that on 27 July 2022, the council received a report of a fly-tip at Rock Road, Wick, containing commercial fridges and building waste.

Photographs of the fly-tip and paperwork relating to Grier and Speedwell Convenience Store, which he owns, were taken and shown to him outside his home address the following month.

He said he had paid to have the waste removed during a store refurbishment.

Council environmental officers told Grier he had a duty of care as business owner to know who had removed the waste.

Grier said it had been a casual arrangement, but he had a receipt. However, when interviewed under caution in January 2023 at the council's offices in Kingswood, he produced a receipt "in a torn and crumpled state with little detail on it", the council said.

Robert Evely, environmental enforcement team leader at South Gloucestershire Council, said: "If you employ a third party to take away your waste, always ensure you ask for a copy of the company's waste carrier registration certificate and ask where it is being taken, or you could be found liable and face prosecution."

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