A fly-tipper who dumped waste in recycling areas, including at a supermarket, has been ordered to carry out unpaid work.
Alan Butler, who didn’t have a licence to collect waste, dumped rubbish he’d collected in a Morrisons store car park and left other items in communal bins at a council-run housing estate in Gravesend.
Alan Butler admitted five offences related to fly-tippingAlan Butler was caught fly-tipping near Morrisons in Gravesend
The 37-year-old was caught on CCTV leaving cardboard, broken furniture and other household items.
He was later charged with five offences, including two counts of depositing waste without an environmental permit, failing to comply with a requirement of section 108 of the Environment Act, failing to take measures when managing extractive waste to prevent contravention of waste and failing to assist an authorised officer under the control of pollution laws.
He admitted the offences when he appeared in court in July and returned to Sevenoaks Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday (September 22) to be sentenced.
The court heard that Butler, of Packham Road, Northfleet, flouted the Environmental Act by dumping waste in communal bins in St Patrick’s Gardens in Gravesend on June 25, 2024.
A witness saw him dump four tins of paint in a wheelie bin and push it back into place. This was prohibited because the bins were used for residential waste, not commercial.
He was then photographed and videoed driving in his white transit van and unloading the waste.
The footage was passed to Gravesham Borough Council, which owns the housing estate, and teams launched an investigation.
When Butler was sent letters by enforcement officers requesting to see his waste carrier licence, and ask why he had dumped the items there, he failed to respond.
Months later, on September 17, Butler deposited waste in a recycling area at Morrisons in Coldharbour Road in Northfleet.
The court also heard he dumped glass and electrical items next to recycling bins in the supermarket car park.
Alan Butler was caught fly-tipping near Morrisons in Gravesend
There were three new signs up to deter people from dumping waste after previous incidents.
The bench was told that he dumped the glass, cardboard boxes, a TV and other scrap waste at the site without any authority or permission and that the clean-up costs for that were £800.
They were also told about another incident in April in Prospect Grove where wooden flooring and furniture were left on a footpath by two men in a blue Vauxhall Corsa.
Butler was later identified as the driver. When written to, he failed to respond to a notice to supply evidence of his carrier licence from the council.
He was also spotted out in his white van in May with controlled waste on board. When he was challenged by officers, he couldn’t produce a waste licence.
Clean-up costs for the dumped waste came to £900, and legal costs to bring the case to court had cost the council an extra £500.
Jon Male, defending, said: “He should have acted on the letter, but he had dyslexia and didn’t understand the consequences of it.
“It was residential waste, and he just put it in the bin; the cardboard, well, there was already cardboard there.”
The court also heard that Butler now had some mobility issues, after injuring his leg in an accident, and that he has extensive debts.
Magistrates were also told that he had poor compliance with a previous court order he’d been issued with for other offences, but that he eventually completed his unpaid work requirement.
Alan Butler was caught fly-tipping near Morrisons in Gravesend
For the string of environmental offences he’d admitted to, magistrates sentenced Butler to a 12-month community order.
The chairman of the bench said: “Dumping waste for money is not an acceptable living, and claiming benefits too; that’s what we believe [you were doing].”
As part of that punishment, he must complete 10 rehabilitation activity sessions and carry out 180 hours of unpaid work in the community.
He was also ordered to pay £126 in court costs and a £114 surcharge.
In August, Gravesham council revealed how authorities – and ultimately the taxpayer – had been left with a whopping £150,000 clean-up bill after one of the worst cases of fly-tipping it had ever seen.
The culprit walked away from court with a suspended sentence, and led to the council leader calling for urgent action from the government to redress the “fundamentally flawed” situation and review the current sentencing guidelines.