Tracking device placed in a pile of rubbish helped to catch fly-tippers

Nathan Wilson and Kimberley Angell, from Pontefract, were caught out by council officers who put a tracking device in a large heap of rubbish they were paid to collect.

The pair came to the attention of the authorities after they took £50 to dispose of waste belonging to a couple in Airedale, who had believed Wilson and Angell had the correct licence to do the job.

But the rubbish was instead dumped next to a block of flats, close to the tippers’ home in Pontefract town centre.

A council report by portfolio holder for communities Maureen Cummings described how, following that incident, a council officer posing as a customer paid Wilson and Angell to take a pile of rubbish, which was placed in an empty garage belonging to Wakefield District Housing (WDH).

The monitoring device placed showed it stayed inside the couple’s van for 24 hours before they drove it to the Warwick Estate in Knottingley. There, they dumped the rubbish onto an area off Windermere Drive.

At Leeds Magistrates’ Court in September, the pair pleaded guilty to the offences and were ordered to undertake 100 hours of community service each. They also had to pay £200 each in costs.

Coun Cummings hoped the punishment would be an effective deterrent to others who are tempted to illegally ditch waste.