How picking UP litter can trigger fines as high as £1,000 – as good Samaritan says she will never do her civic duty again!
- Jane Pearce, of Camden, London, was fined a £400 for putting litter in wrong bin
- Campaigners are now calling for a clamp down on private firms fining residents
Private enforcement agents are using ‘aggressive’ tactics to slap good Samaritans with massive fines for fly-tipping – even penalising pensioners for litter-picking, the Daily Mail can reveal.
A government crackdown on antisocial behaviour announced earlier this year set out tougher punishments for ‘nuisance’ crimes while urging authorities to issue more on-the-spot penalties.
But campaigners say the plan further incentivised independent firms – often on multi-million-pound council contracts – to hand out as many as possible. Littering is punishable with fines of up to £1,000.
A poll for the Mail reveals 3 per cent of Britons have been accused of fly-tipping. Of these, four in five believe they were unfairly accused or fined, the Consumer Intelligence survey of 1,000 adults revealed.
Campaigners have called for a clampdown on over-zealous operators amid claims that private enforcement officers have been ‘lurking behind bushes’ as well as handing out fines to householders for innocent mistakes such as putting their bins out at the wrong time.
This includes Jane Pearce, who litter-picked her street in Camden, north London, but was handed a £400 penalty after she deposited the rubbish in a wheelie bin.
This includes Jane Pearce (pictured), who litter-picked her street in Camden, north London, but was handed a £400 penalty after she deposited the rubbish in a wheelie bin
Fined £400 for putting rubbish in the wrong bin
Jane Pearce swept and picked up litter in her street – but received a £400 fine for putting the rubbish in the wrong bin.
The mother of two swept outside her north London home and in her elderly neighbour’s garden and put a bag of rubbish in a wheelie-bin across the road.
A few days later the 70-year-old received a letter from the council demanding she pay a fine with photos of her carrying out the ‘fly-tipping’ attached.
Mrs Pearce, who said she felt ‘spied upon’, added: ‘I thought, ‘I’m doing the citizenly thing’, but never again. I was so shocked.’
Camden council said it had received several complaints from Curnock Estate residents about their bins being filled by people who did not live there.
Tory MP Robin Millar said: ‘For years we have heard from members of the public who have been bullied and intimidated by unscrupulous private companies managing these services for councils… it seems local authorities are turning a blind eye to the behaviour of the private contractors they use, when they profit from the fines issued.’
In February dementia nurse Susan Watson said she was chased down the street by an officer from National Enforcement Solutions and fined £100 for scattering bread to feed ducks. The 68-year-old said: ‘I remember someone started to run after me, shouting ‘hello’.
‘He told me I was on camera and that I had committed an environmental infringement.
‘There were no crumbs on the pathway and the bread went straight into the water.
‘I asked if he could give me a warning, but he refused.
‘He went on to say that what I did could be seen as fly-tipping, which is a much bigger offence. It was one slice of bread.’
The Tonbridge council in Kent later agreed to refund the fine.
Josie Appleton, director of campaign group the Manifesto Club, said she is now contacted weekly by someone who has been wrongly accused of fly-tipping.
She said private firms were often ‘paid per fine’ and so were ‘incentivised to issue as many as possible’.
In 2021/22, 35 councils paid private enforcement companies £5million in total while 44 authorities raked in £4.1million in fines revenue, according to freedom of information requests sent by the group.
A total of 66 councils employed private agencies to police fly-tipping with 90 per cent of them paying per fine issued, according to the data.
Ms Appleton said: ‘If these fines increase, the incentives to punish the innocent will be increased unless there are real sanctions in place to stop it.’
A Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs spokesman said: ‘Fines should never be used as a means to raise revenue.’
The mother of two (pictured) swept outside her north London home and in her elderly neighbour’s garden and put a bag of rubbish in a wheelie-bin across the road
A few days later she received a letter from the council demanding she pay a fine with photos of her carrying out the ‘fly-tipping’ attached
Mrs Pearce was photographed by the council desposing of her house waste ‘illegally’
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