High Wycombe company fined £4,000 for fly tipping waste in Penn

Drainiac Ltd, a drain and sewer clearance company based in Hazlemere, was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay over £1,000 towards clean-up and investigation costs after waste from its address was illegally fly-tipped on Gravelly Way in Penn.

High Wycombe Magistrates Court heard on Wednesday, February 21, that Drainiac Ltd exchanged a pile of mixed building waste for £50 in cash with a man who asked if they had any scrap metal to dispose of back in June 2023.

However, the company had unknowingly done business with a rogue trader who later dumped the waste on Gravelly Way, where it was found by a council enforcement officer and traced back to Drainiac Ltd.

The Hazlemere business pleaded guilty to failing in their duty of care when transferring waste to a waste remover, prompting Thomas Broom, Buckinghamshire Council’s Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment, to warn others against paying for waste disposal services with cash.

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Mr Broom said: “Buckinghamshire Council has a firm position on fly-tipping – it is against the law and offenders will face ‘zero tolerance’ consequences.

“This offence was traced through evidence found amongst the waste which traced back to a company who had not made the correct checks on the waste remover. Even though the company had not carried out the fly-tipping directly, as the producer of the waste, they are held accountable for its legal disposal.

 “We continue to emphasise to everyone; cash payment is not traceable so we would encourage people not to pay by cash when having waste removed.

“Always use a registered waste removal service. You can check easily online and pay by card of even cheque which creates a digital, traceable record and allows our enforcement team to seek to prosecute the offenders directly.”

The council increased its threshold for fly-tipping fines in December 2023, raising the maximum Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) for the offence from £400 to £1,000.

Fixed Penalty Notices are used for smaller-scale offences and payment means avoiding court proceedings and a criminal record.

For larger-scale and more serious fly-tipping incidents, the party involved can be summoned to Magistrates' Court and face custodial sentences and costs totalling thousands of pounds.

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