A Mansfield woman has been ordered to pay over £1,500 for fly tipping after she left two mattresses in the street around the corner from where she lived.
Laresr Sonman, aged 24, of Howard Road, was convicted of the offence in her absence after she failed to attend the hearing at Mansfield Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 22 January.
The court was told the defendant was captured on a Mansfield District Council CCTV camera leaving her home with two mattresses and then leaving them on the pavement across the road in Broomhill Lane on 20 May last year.
Council officers visited the householder and she admitted the offence when shown the camera footage. She was issued with a Community Protection Warning.
She was also issued with a Fixed Penalty Notice for fly tipping which she agreed to pay. It would have been £122 if paid within seven days or £400 if paid within 14 days.
However, the FPN was never paid so the council had to progress the case for a court ruling. In court, Laresr Sonman was fined £300 for fly tipping and ordered to pay £1,138.56 in costs and a surcharge of £120.
Cllr Angie Jackson, Joint Portfolio Holder for Wellbeing, Health and Safer Communities, said: “This case shows we take a zero-tolerance approach to fly tipping. No one wants to live around rubbish dumped irresponsibly and we want Mansfield to be a clean and safe place to live. It also shows how our CCTV is being used to tackle this issue.
"The court case was completely avoidable. The householder had a range of options to dispose of the mattresses, including using the council’s bulky waste service or arranging for the items to be transported to a local Household Waste Recycling Centre.
“Instead, by not using these options and then not paying the fly tipping FPN, the resident is having to pay so much more and has ended up with a criminal record because we were forced to progress this to a court hearing.
"Before anyone is tempted to fly tip any item of rubbish we would urge them to check out their options, including the council’s bulky waste service first. If using a private waste disposal contractor, residents should check they have the correct licences and registrations in place."
Details of the council’s bulky waste collection service can be found on the council website (link opens in new window).