Nidas Ratkevicius believes he did what was right by putting the rubbish in the bin rather than ‘throwing it on the ground’
15:24, 27 Mar 2026Updated 15:29, 27 Mar 2026
Hounslow Council has now paused the fixed penalty notice because ‘early evidence in this case remains inconclusive’ [stock image](Image: coldsnowstorm/ GettyImages)
A dad from Hounslow who received a £1,000 fine from the council claims he was simply trying to do the right thing by putting an envelope in a bin. Nidas Ratkevicius told LBC he received a scary letter from Hounslow Council alleging he was responsible for fly-tipping, after the envelope was discovered inside a black bin bag in a bin meant exclusively for purple bin bags.
Mr Ratkevicius filled out a council questionnaire in response and was issued a £1,000 fixed penalty notice, which has since been put on hold following him raising concerns. The council now wants to interview him under caution.
Speaking to LBC he said: “It’s like taking bread from my family. £1,000 is not small money. For me, it’s huge. If I did it, it’s because I saw a bin and put rubbish in it. That’s normal. You don’t throw it on the ground. There were mattresses, bags, everything around it. No signs, nothing. If it was closed or marked, I would never touch it.”
This comes after the LDRS revealed Hounslow Council missed more than 2,000 household waste collections in the same period it issued an NHS nurse a £1,000 ‘fly-tipping’ fine for placing an envelope next to overflowing bins, as reported by MyLondon.
Loretta Alvarez was fined £1,000 by Hounslow Council over an envelope she placed next to overflowing communal bins which had not been emptied(Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)
The council gave Feltham-based mental health nurse Loretta Alvarez the hefty penalty after workers found her name and address on a cardboard envelope, which she’d placed on a pile of cardboard next to the communal bins outside her flats in October.
During the same period – from October to December 2025 – the council-owned Lampton Recycle 360 missed 2,080 bin collections. In December alone, 1,253 collections were missed.
In December, Hounslow Council refused to cancel the fine handed to the nurse despite strong support for its cancellation with more than 2,200 signatures on an online petition which you can sign. At the time, Cllr Pritam Grewal said the council was confident it did the “right thing” in issuing the single mum with the highest possible fly-tipping penalty – the same amount you’d get for dumping a van full of waste down a country lane.
Mr Ratkeviciusinvited to attend an interview under caution
In a statement, the West London council told MyLondon Mr Ratkevicius is invited to attend an interview under caution. It also said the penalty has been frozen has he hasn’t actually admitted to the littering.
A spokesperson for Hounslow Council said: “We thank Mr Ratkevicius for bringing this matter to our attention. Because Mr Ratkevicius has not admitted to the offence, and early evidence in this case remains inconclusive, we have put the FPN on hold while we investigate further.
“Evidence linking this individual to a bag of fly-tipped waste (an addressed envelope bearing Mr Ratkevicius’ name and address) was found in one of our borough’s fly-tipping hotspots. We are inviting Mr Ratkevicius to attend an interview under caution to help us understand how and why waste linked to his address came to be dumped at this location.
“In addition to this interview, we will also be reviewing CCTV from the area to help us understand how this waste came to be dumped. We are grateful for any information Mr Ratkevicius is able to provide to assist us with our investigation.”
MyLondon has asked Hounslow Council to clarify where the bag was found.
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