A 57-year-old woman was forced to contribute nearly £2,000 towards clean-up costs after her car was used to illegally dump waste on a roadside in Buckinghamshire.

Mary Nolan Purcell, 57, from Greenlands in Princes Risborough was fined £300 and forced to pay a contribution of £1,800 towards the council’s clean-up costs and a £34 victim surcharge after her car was used to illegally fly-tip on land in Castlefield, High Wycombe.

A resident’s security camera caught an individual dumping wooden cabinets on Longland Way in Castlefield on Tuesday, December 28, 2021, before driving away in a vehicle that was traced to Miss Purcell.

The 57-year-old admitted to owning the vehicle but denied that she had been responsible for dumping the cabinets or that she had been aware of the incident taking place.

The parameters around prosecution for fly-tipping necessitate the owner of a vehicle to prove that they exercised ‘all due diligence’ to avoid it being used to dump waste illegally. If this bar cannot be met, they are viewed as having ‘knowingly caused’ the offence and are legally reprehensible for it.  

The costs levied against Miss Purcell came to a total of £2,134.

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Gareth Williams, Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment said: “This case shows how we will use all evidence available to us when it comes to prosecuting criminals for fly-tipping in Buckinghamshire.

“It costs the council a vast amount of money every year to clean up the mess left by those who think that fly-tipping is acceptable. It is only right that the perpetrators are forced to contribute towards these costs.

“There is no excuse for fly-tipping. These items could have been taken to one of our Household Recycling Centres and disposed of legally and easily.”