Dumping that garbage will cost you millions
A British policewoman (right) walks past a garbage truck in the holiday resort of Magaluf in Calvia on Mallorca Island on August 11, 2015. PHOTO | JAIME REINA |
What you need to know:
- New powers were introduced which permit courts to fine offenders up to Sh485 million and/or prison terms.
They call it fly-tipping, the illegal dumping of waste on private or public land. Often beauty spots and country lanes are the target due to their remote location, though some fly-tippers will dump rubbish anywhere under cover of darkness.
You could open your back door any morning and be confronted with a dirty mattress, a bed frame, a refrigerator or cooker, bags of household waste, building rubble or garden weeds. If it is not moved quickly, the garbage becomes infested with rats and smells of rotting food.
The perpetrators are frequently landlords clearing a house or flat after a tenant has left; or a small businessman with a van who will take a cash in hand to dispose of rubbish by fly-tips instead of driving to an official tip or recycling centre.
Officials say rubbish is dumped 75 times an hour and costs councils across England and Wales £40 million (Sh6.4 billion) per year. Less than a million pounds (Sh161 million) is recouped by fines.
In July, however, tough new powers were introduced which permit courts to fine offenders up to £3 million (Sh485 million) and/or prison terms, with lower fines or community sentences for lesser offences.
One councillor, Nigel Todd of Newcastle upon Tyne, said: “We’ve had enough of fly-tippers using where we live as their personal rubbish tip. So we’re out to get them.”
He urged people to take vehicle numbers and to photograph or video fly-tippers or call the police with descriptions of the offenders, their hair style, clothes, colour.
The king of the fly-tippers is Tony Shepherd, who operated two illegal waste sites in County Durham. He was videoed dumping lorry loads of plasterboard at a cow byre as bedding for cattle. His activities were described in court as “fly-tipping on a commercial scale.”
Shepherd was given a suspended jail sentence and ordered to pay £350,000 (Sh56 million) under the Proceeds of Crime Act. He was told that he faced charges of £1.2 million (Sh194 million) if further assets came to light.
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For years, black people have complained that they are unfairly targeted by the police’s controversial stop-and-search procedure. The tactic has resulted in growing distrust of the police among young people and ethnic communities.
Now one force – Northamptonshire – has taken steps to reverse this situation. It has introduced a ruling that any officer judged to have abused the procedure – stopping someone for no reasons, for instance – will be stripped of his right to stop and search.
Already eight officers have been so disciplined and supporters are urging that the new ruling be adopted countrywide.
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A homeless man who stole a soft drink worth 99 pence (Sh160) was ordered to pay 150 times its value in controversial new court fees.
The man took the can from a Northeast supermarket. Previously, he would have been fined £15 (Sh2,400), but according to new charges introduced in April, for a summary offence he must pay £150 (Sh24,000), money he may never be able to find and which could land him in jail.
Lawyers and magistrates alike have condemned the new charges as outrageous and are calling for an immediate review.
Mr George Lyons, a magistrate from North Shields, said, “This is a terrible piece of legislation introduced through the back door. Justice is going to be only for those who can afford it.”
Mr Lyons is among 20 magistrates across the country who have resigned because of the new rules.
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A few more sayings of the wise:
When a man opens a car door for his wife, it’s either a new car or a new wife. – Prince Philip
We are here on earth to do good to others. What the others are here for, I have no idea. – Poet W.H. Auden.
The best cure for sea sickness is to sit under a tree. – Comedian Spike Milligan.
Kill one man and you’re a murderer, kill a million and you’re a conqueror. – Philosopher Jean Rostand.
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A man will pay 200 shillings for a 100-shilling item which he needs. A woman will pay 100 shillings for a 200-shilling item she doesn’t need but it’s on sale.
A woman has the last word in any argument.
Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.
A woman will dress up to go out, to water the plants, to check her emails, watch telly, read a book and answer the door. A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.
When three men get a restaurant bill, they all throw a note on the table and say they don’t want any change. When three women get a restaurant bill, they get out three calculators.
