Hefty fine for buy to let owner who dumped rubbish from rental flats

A landlord has received a £5,620 court bill after he pleaded guilty to three fly tipping offences.

John Hills - who ironically comes from Binbrook in Lincolshire - was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay other legal costs after rubbish from three of his rental properties was found fly tipped in a layby on the A46.

Council officers investigated a complaint in October last year about a large amount of waste piled up outside a property owned by Hills in Grimsby. A month later the same rubbish was found fly tipped in a layby on the A46 near Irby upon Humber along with more waste that included unopened letters addressed to two other properties owned by Hills.

When officers returned to the original property, the waste had gone and they were told Hills had arranged for it to be removed.

The layby on the A46 was visited again a week later after another report of fly tipping was made to the council. The household rubbish was later identified as coming from a property owned by Hills.

Hills was interviewed under caution in March this year and admitted that he knew a waste carrier’s licence was needed to dispose of such waste but he didn’t have one and didn’t check if anyone else who took waste from his property had one.

He pleaded guilty to three offences under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 at Grimsby Magistrates’ Court.