Two fly-tippers captured by West Midlands villagers

The men were caught red-handed dumping large piles of rubbish on Packington Estate’s Maxstoke Lane near Meriden. Locals used their cars to barricade the vans and called the police. 

The incident, described by Warwickshire Police as “some of the worst fly-tipping we had seen in a long time,” happened last Wednesday, 7th February. The men were detained and ordered to reload their vehicles with rubbish. Their vehicles were then seized under the Environmental Act. 

No cake for them

A statement issued by the Operational Patrol Unit for Warwickshire Police reads: “We detained two males who were instructed to reload the two vans with all the rubbish dumped. 

“We supervised them cleaning up their mess and enjoyed a great cup of tea and slice of home made cake courtesy of the farmer’s wife. No cake and tea for these two offenders.” 

Speaking to the media, a police spokesperson added: “Cleaning up the results of fly-tipping is the responsibility of the local council and members of the public who discover incidents of fly-tipping should report it to them directly. Officers from the Warwickshire Rural Crime Team also attended the scene and have now taken on the investigation and prosecution case.” 

Urgent call for action

The NFU has recently made an urgent call for action after the latest statistics show that more than one million incidents of fly-tipping were reported across England last year.  

According to Defra, local authorities in England dealt with 1.08 million fly-tipping incidents between April 2022 and March 2023. This marks a decrease of 1% from the 1.09 million reported in 2021/22. However, Defra has stated its figures only account for public land, and do not include reports on private or farmland. 

The on-the-spot fines for litter, graffiti and fly-tipping have also been set to rise as the government moves to clamp down on anti-social behaviour that harms nature and communities. 

To help councils clamp down on waste crime, the government has laid a statutory instrument increasing the upper limits for various fixed penalty notices (FPNs) which means: 

• The maximum amount those caught fly-tipping could be fined increases from £400 to £1,000 

• The maximum amount those who litter or graffiti could be fined increases from £150 to £500 

• The maximum amount those who breach their household waste duty of care could be fined increases from £400 to £600 

Read more rural crime articles here.