The maximum fines for fly tippers have increased in January 2024 in a bid to discourage the practice.
From Monday 8th January, the new fine limits for fly tipping and other forms of waste mismanagement are as follows:
- Fly-tipping from a domestic property – £500 (formerly £400)
- Fly-tipping from a motor vehicle – £1,000 (formerly £400)
- Fly-tipping from a commercial business – £1,000 (formerly £400)
- Litter or graffiti from a domestic person – £200 (formerly £80)
- Litter or graffiti from a commercial business – £500 (formerly £80)
- Household duty of care – £600 (formerly £400)
The new fine increases were first proposed by the government in summer 2023 but have taken until the new year to put into place.
Fly-tipping remains a huge problem for councils to try and solve. As just one example, Stoke on Trent city council has reported that many fines issued remain unpaid.
Councils are cracking down on offenders, despite the unpaid fines, as they wish to help clear up the streets and lower the costs of councils having to deal with rubbish and litter themselves, which is one of the biggest burdens on council budgets. With councils severely strained, it makes sense for them to try to remove this problem rather than have to deal with the aftermath.
How Private Investigators Can Help
Private investigators don’t just work with individuals or with private corporations – at EJM Investigations, we regularly partner with councils who need our services for help with benefit fraud, license breaches, and with fly-tipping.
When you are dealing with repeat offenders, who are costing councils huge cleanup sums, it can often be more cost-effective to catch the perpetrators in the act so that you can levy a fine and hopefully stop them from continuing to dump rubbish.
Once you have their information you can also check whether they are licensed or not – if not, you can potentially take action against them for acting as an unlicensed waste collector. If they are, you can determine whether they need further action for breaching the terms of their license.
A private investigator can put in the hard work that you simply don’t have the time and resources for – we can monitor problem spots and capture someone in the act of fly-tipping, giving you all the information and evidence you need to issue fines.
We don’t just have to work with councils, either. We’re able to work with private clients who have either paid to have waste removed but then had it dumped illegally, causing them to be fined, or with clients who live near spots where fly-tipping is prevalent in order to put an end to the practice.
Depending on the situation, we can either set up cameras or monitor a fly-tipping hotspot in person, using our covert equipment to capture all the evidence you need.
So whether you’re a council or a private client who has issues with fly-tipping, give us a call on 01772 334700 and we’ll do everything we can so that the offenders can be issued with one of the newly increased fines.