Hi All,

just wanted your opinions on this please.

A local takeaway owner applied to the Local Authority for a commercial waste bin.

Eventually he got one but it took a month to get it.

In the meantime,

two other shops allowed him to put his rubbish in their commercial bins until his was delivered.

Soon after getting his bin,

he was contacted by the Local Authority in which they accused him of fly-tipping as one black bag of his rubbish had been found on a local nature reserve with details of his shop inside.

He says that he cannot understand how only one bag was put there as when he used the other shops bins

he always put 10 to 15 bags in the bins and the other shops are very close to him whereas the nature reserve is about 5 miles away?

I would like to know if he is legally entitled to use the other shops bins thereby quelling any fears of prosecution for fly-tipping?

The other two shop owners are quite happy to say they allowed him to use their bins Until he got his own but only if there is no threat of prosecution to them.

Any ideas?

Thanks all.

Put it in whatever bins he likes. But if his stuff is found somewhere it shouldnt be, then he will be to blame for it.

But if his stuff is found somewhere it shouldnt be, then he will be to blame for it.

Local councils seem to take the approach that if they find your rubbish - commercial or householder - somewhere it shouldn't be they don't have to prove you put it there and (so they claim) you can be convicted of illegal waste disposal unless you can prove you didn't put it there. I don't know whether there's actually a law that says the onus is on you to prove you didn't dump it, but that's what my council claims.

One week all the black bin bags (householder rubbish) in my street we'd put out for collection the next morning were stolen overnight! Someone saw a couple of guys drive down the street and throw them all in the back of a truck at 4.00am. Presumably they were going to go through them for ID theft or whatever.

In case they turned up dumped somewhere I reported it as a theft online to Met police. ("Value of property stolen £0.00") I got a phone call shortly after from local nick asking what I thought I was doing! I explained about Council prosecuting etc, then he understood why I wanted an official record somewhere that the rubbish had been stolen and I hadn't dumped it. But he was concerned about his crime statistics! We found a compromise. He didn't log it as a crime report but he was able to log it as an incident and give me an official Met Police reference number Problem solved.

One bag dumped with your details within it so they have that as evidence.

What I would be asking is what route did the rubbish vehicle that on collection of the commercial bins take after collection from XYZ. (reason I say this is was that one bag at the nature reserve by any chance on the route they took after collection of those commercial bins on XX/XX/XXXX)

Hi guys, thanks for the replies. From what I’ve read myself it looks like he will be ok saying he put it in the other shops bins. I have however told him not to enter into any conversation with them as I’ve read a few stories of how they try to lead you into a conversation that will give them a passage to prosecute. Anyway, let’s see what happens and I’ll get back with the outcome.

Even if he keeps quiet, theyll still chase. ANd if he still keeps quiet, his stuff was there, so theyll just assume hes guilty.