Luton man fined for dumping rubbish on National Trust land

The court heard that on 15 March 2015, four sacks of building waste were found dumped in bushes near a casual parking area at Ashridge National Trust estate in Buckinghamshire. The waste was found by National Trust volunteers during a clean-up exercise and cleared and disposed of at the Trust’s expense. The incident was reported to the Waste Partnership for Buckinghamshire for investigation.

Details within the dumped waste were traced to a building firm from Luton. The company was able to demonstrate that it had several different fully authorised waste disposal routes by which employees could dispose of the company’s waste. All the firm’s vans are fitted with trackers and it was a relatively simple matter for the company to identify the driver responsible for the waste deposit at Ashridge.

Mr Litwinski attended a voluntary interview at Dunstable and was questioned by investigators from the Waste Partnership for Buckinghamshire. He admitted depositing the waste but could not fully account for having left it there. He said he had taken the sacks out of the van to gain access to his cigarettes (which were in his coat). He could not explain why he had not put the sacks back in the van, nor why he had deposited them in bushes well away from the van. He acknowledged that dumping waste in this manner would also be illegal in his native Poland.

The Magistrates fined Mr Litwinski £800 and ordered him to pay clean-up and prosecution costs of £745. A victim surcharge of £80 was also levied, making a total to pay of £1,625.

The case was prosecuted by Buckinghamshire County Council working on behalf of the Waste Partnership for Buckinghamshire.