Batley man and Dewsbury company among those fined for fly-tipping offences

The notice has been issued after a series of successful court cases in January saw fines totalling more than £5,300 handed out to two residents and two business in Kirklees, following investigations by the council’s Greenspace Action Team (GAT).

Councillor Naheed Mather, cabinet member for environment said: “These four cases represent a significant success in our battle against fly-tipping in Kirklees and I want to thank the GAT team for its superb work in tracking down the people responsible.

"Let it be made clear, fly-tippers in Kirklees; if you are responsible, we will use everything in our power to find you and make you pay.

“We now have the right to reclaim our costs in finding these criminals and will make sure we do.

"There is no excuse for fly-tipping in Kirklees.

"The council provides substantial opportunities to dispose of waste at its household waste recycling centres and we will not tolerate the thoughtless, selfish and environmentally damaging actions of residents or businesses that break the law in this manner.”

Eric Farkas, of Crosland Moor, Huddersfield, was fined £1,514 for illegally dumping the rubbish of a female Dewsbury resident.

She contacted Farkas, who had been advertising a waste removal service via Facebook Marketplace. She paid him £100 to remove household waste, garden waste and children’s toys.

But instead of disposing of it properly, he and an unknown associate dumped it on Paul Lane, Colne Bridge, Huddersfield. The location is a rural fly-tipping hotspot. It took three council operatives four hours to clear the waste.

Darion Anthony Dawson, of Batley, was fined a total of £628 after he dumped three to four black bin liners full of household waste, food packaging and rotting food waste on the highway at Grange Road, Batley.

Dawson was given the chance to pay a fixed penalty fine to discharge the offence but refused the offer, leaving the council to proceed to prosecution.

He failed to attend the hearing, writing to the court explaining that he had to go to Hungary. His guilty plea was accepted and resulted in a lessening of the fine.

A1 Motor Group Ltd pleaded guilty to seven separate Section 34 offences for loss of control of business waste. The company was fined a total of £2,830.

The matter related to the discovery of a series of incidents, between December 2020 and April 2021, all involved fly-tipping in the Ravensthorpe area of Dewsbury.

On every occasion the waste, which typically consisted of four to five bin liners, contained food packaging, food waste, and documents that clearly identified the source of the waste as being A1 Motor Group.

The sole director of A1 Motor Group, Najam Afzal of Dewsbury, claimed to have no knowledge of the incidents, explaining that his brother was responsible for the day to day running of the business.

His brother accepted culpability on behalf of the company and the offences against Mr Afzal were withdrawn.

On June 8, 2021, Kirklees’ GAT Officers were called to a substantial fly-tip on Sandy Lane, Crosland Hill, Huddersfield.

The waste consisted of numerous bin liners of food packaging, food waste and cardboard packaging. A search of the fly-tip resulted in the discovery of evidence connecting the waste to Katie Murphy, of Crosland Moor, Huddersfield.

Officers visited Miss Murphy who admitted that she used the services of a third party to remove the waste but would not identify them.

Miss Murphy was offered the opportunity to pay a fixed penalty for failing to control the depositing of her waste, but did not take up the offer, which led to her prosecution in court.

She was fined a total of £414 after she was given credit for her early guilty plea and her financial position of being on benefits were considered.