An operator has been given a community order for illegally dumping household waste on disused land.
Birmingham Magistrates’ Court heard how a business owner photographed the defendant David Orsler illegally depositing 26 tonnes of general household waste on disused land in Smethwick on 10 July 2016. When Environment Agency officers interviewed Orsler, from Solihull, he admitted that he was paid £650 to collect the waste from a site in Dudley, but had received no formal paperwork.
The illegal waste deposit had an adverse impact on the amenity value of the area and the defendant benefited financially. Earlier this year, Orsler entered a guilty plea to the charge of unlawfully depositing the waste. He then failed to attend the subsequent hearing, where the magistrates found that he had committed the offence deliberately and with a flagrant disregard for the law.
At the latest hearing Orsler was sentenced to a 12-month community order and ordered to complete 220 hours of unpaid work. He was also ordered to pay £2,974 compensation to the landowner, £2,000 prosecution costs and £85 victim surcharge.
In sentencing Orsler, the judge took into consideration the absence of any similar previous convictions. A statement from the Environment Agency said: “Waste crime is serious offence as it can damage the environment, blight local communities and undermine those who operate legally.
“This successful outcome shows that the courts take such incidents very seriously. In this case, the defendant showed a total disregard for the law as it would have been obvious to him that the site where he tipped the waste, was not a legitimate one.”
