Litter picker who claims he’d never dump rubbish given £400 fly-tipping fine

A letter with Robert Stewart’s address was found in this pile of rubbish dumped in a doorway (Picture: BPM Media)

A litter picker says he is ‘broken’ after being handed a £400 fine for fly-tipping.

Robert Stewart, 71, regularly reports fly-tipping to his MP and the council and says he is ‘forever’ collecting rubbish in his local area – so he was ‘disgusted’ to receive a fine.

He was told a letter addressed to him was found amongst a pile of rubbish dumped in a doorway in Stoke on Trent, but his only explanation is that the letter must have been delivered to the wrong person.

Robert, from Tunstall, said: ‘I am absolutely disgusted. I am forever collecting rubbish, people in this area will back me up.

‘I’ve received a letter prosecuting me for £400 for fly-tipping that hasn’t been dumped by me.

‘They found a letter of mine in all this rubbish. I want to see proof of this letter. If they did, someone else received it and they disposed of it. I shred most of my letters, it’s very rare that I put them in the bin.

Robert has written to his MP multiple times about fly-tipping in the area (Picture: BPM Media)

A huge pile of rubbish – including a letter addressed to Robert – was dumped in a doorway (Picture: BPM Media)

‘I wanted to go and look at the rubbish myself. But by the time I had walked around there it was gone.

‘I’d love to see this letter. If it’s a letter my wife and I are waiting for, like a hospital appointment, we’d like to know what this letter says!

‘When I received the fine it broke me. All I’ve ever done is try to keep this area tidy. It seems underhanded.

‘There’s no way I’m going to pay it. I want them to get rid of the fine and apologise.’

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Stoke on Trent council says evidence found among the rubbish, dumped in a doorway in The Boulevard, will be disclosed if the fine is not paid.

Councillor Amjid Wazir said: ‘Stoke on Trent city council is maintaining its zero-tolerance approach to illegal dumping in our towns and with that comes enforcement.

‘We are continuing with proactive patrolling and investigations. Once an area is under investigation and while evidence is being processed, we arrange for the removal of the waste with our cleansing teams.

‘We cannot comment on individual ongoing investigations, however, should any fine remain unpaid the recipient will be invited to attend a cautioned interview where any evidence seized will be produced.’

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