A Rotherham man who paid three strangers to recycle his rubbish, is to pay nearly £1,400 in fines and costs after it was fly-tipped.
Rotherham Council Enforcement officers searched building and household waste by hand to find documents relating to the man’s home on Roseberry Street, Rotherham.
Ghazanfar Hussain, 39, admitted to officers that he’d paid three strangers £350 for a lorry load of waste to be removed, after they were recommended to him by a friend.
The men took a second load under the agreement that they would be paid when they returned with a receipt, but the men never came back and Hussain says he’s not seen them since.
Wood, plaster boards and bedding were part of the rubbish dumped in Scholes Lane, Scholes, last summer. This was cleaned up by the Council’s Street Cleansing team.
Ghazanfar Hussain said a second load was taken away under the agreement that this would be paid for when the strangers returned with a receipt. The men never returned and haven’t been seen by Hussain since.
Hussain fully admitted that the waste was from his property and that he had not make sure that the men removing it had a waste carriers license. Neither did he carry out checks on the men or the waste company.
Speaking after the case was heard by Sheffield Magistrates Court, Cllr Saghir Alam, Cabinet Member for Finance & Safe and Clean Communities: “Householders have a Duty of Care to check that someone they pay to remove waste from their property is a licensed waste carrier. Remember, your waste is still your responsibility, even when you’ve given it to someone else.
“Mr Hussain failed to carry out the necessary checks and has been hit in the pocket as a result.”
Hussain pleaded guilty to not performing his duty of care and magistrates fined him £550, ordered him to pay £606 costs and a victim surcharge of £220.