Flytipper handed £1,700 fine

The first-ever flytipping prosecution in South Staffordshire has resulted in a Midland man being fined more than £1,700 for dumping rubbish.

And two other men from Wolverhampton and Dudley are also due to appear in court next week accused of off loading waste in the area, the Express & Star can reveal today.

Yesterday 20-year-old John Cole, of Cordon Close, Kidderminster, was hauled before Stafford magistrates for dumping cardboard waste in Gilbert Lane, Kinver.

Mr Venice Archer-Dyer, prosecuting for South Staffordshire Council, said the field was notorious for flytipping.

"The waste was traced back to a resident, who said she had responded to an advert and paid £60 for someone to take it away," he told the court yesterday.

"The defendant then took the rubbish and discarded it in the field instead of disposing of it legally.

"The area in question is a notorious blackspot for illegal flytipping and the council spends hours cleaning it up."

She appealed to the bench to make an example of Cole to deter others.

Jobless Cole, who admitted depositing domestic waste on October 10 last year, claimed: "I tried to dispose of it legally but when I tried a place in Wolverhampton, it was pitch black and I couldn't find it. I admit I dumped it on that site.

"I lost my job last year in electrics and have been doing odd jobs for builders to get some money and didn't know what to do with it."

Magistrates ordered him to pay £2,039 including court costs.

On March 13 Danny Thornton, aged 22, of Fourth Avenue, in Low Hill, Wolverhampton and 34-year old Harry Price, of Leys Road, Brierley Hill, will be before Stafford Magistrates accused of flytipping.

The Express & Star told this week how 661 reports of the problem had been made in South Staffordshire during the last year alone.