Caught on camera

A man who brazenly dumped a large amount of waste on a private driveway in High Wycombe has paid the penalty for his crime in court as he is forced to pay more than £2,000 in fines and costs.

Terrance Davies, 62, from Havenfield Drive in High Wycombe, pleaded guilty to the offence of the illegal dumping of waste when he appeared at High Wycombe Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday 11 December 2024.

The court heard that on Sunday 3 September 2023, an excessive amount of green waste was dumped at Marlow Road in High Wycombe. What Davies didn’t realise at the time, was that the act was caught on private CCTV from one of the properties in the road and was sent to Buckinghamshire Council’s waste enforcement team as evidence.

The footage clearly showed a vehicle pulling into a private driveway and a male exiting the vehicle before dumping two full buckets and a large pile of green waste in the driveway. The male then got back in his vehicle and drove away.

Investigations carried out by the enforcement team traced the vehicle back to Davies. Officers attempted to speak to Davies to ask him to explain his actions, however he refused to cooperate leaving the council with no option but to summons him to court.

Magistrates at High Wycombe Magistrates’ Court heard the case, fining Davies £576 and ordered him to pay full costs of £1,242.67. A victim surcharge of £230 was also levied – making a total to pay of £2,048.67.

Thomas Broom, Buckinghamshire Council’s Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment said: “We have a zero tolerance to fly-tipping of any type in Buckinghamshire. This criminal found out the hard way that simply trying to ignore our attempts to investigate doesn’t pay off and he has ended up paying much more in terms of costs than he would have done had he simply admitted the offence in the first instance.”

Thomas explained: “In simple cases of this type, our initial course of action is to issue the person responsible for the offence with a Fixed Penalty Notice. At the time this offence took place that would have been £400, but the amount has now risen to £1,000. Unfortunately, Mr Davies chose to ignore our efforts to speak with him and so we were left with no other choice but to put him in front of a court where he ended up out of pocket; more than four times the amount he would have done if he had admitted his guilt straightaway.”

If you have evidence showing an offence taking place and you are willing to provide a witness statement, please contact the council’s Enforcement Team at: SCRAPflytipping@buckinghamshire.gov.uk

To report fly-tipping anywhere in Buckinghamshire visit: www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/fix-my-street