Luton fly-tipper handed suspended sentence after repeatedly dumping rubbish in Markyate

A man from Luton has been handed a suspended sentence after being found guilty on two counts of fly-tipping rubbish on a country lane in Dacorum

Martyn Woodbridge, of Poynters Road, Luton, was sentenced on Thursday, November 17 after a two-day trial in August. He was charged with two incidents of the unauthorised deposit of controlled waste contrary to S.33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 between the March 27 and 29 last year.

Woodbridge was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment (suspended for 12 months), ordered to attend 15 days of rehab activity and pay a contribution toward prosecutions costs for the sum of £900 and compensation of £600 for clear up costs. The court heard how an environmental enforcement officer went to Coles Lane in Markyate, to investigate a report of fly-tipping, where a large pile of waste was found to have been dumped by the roadside.

The covert cameras in the area were reviewed and showed a male driver unloading waste, including old vehicle parts, out of a white van. The same vehicle was then seen to return days later, and dump a similar amount of waste at the same location.

The defendant was invited to attend an interview under caution at the council officer but he failed to attend or further engage with the council during the investigation. At the trial, Woodbridge, who entered not guilty pleas to both charges and represented himself, maintained that his vehicle was a different model to the one used to commit the offences and that the number plate of his vehicle had also been copied and put on a different vehicle by someone else to commit the offences. After hearing all the evidence a jury unanimously found him guilty on both counts of fly-tipping.

Cllr Julie Banks said: “This sentence shows our zero tolerance approach to environmental crime and in particular fly-tipping.”

She added: “Our Environmental Enforcement Officers work hard to assess and visit every reported incident of fly-tipping in the borough to evidence the fly-tipping and investigate, where possible, who was responsible for dumping it and or where it has come from.”