Good turn backfires
The following appeared in Wigan Observer on 25 July 2006. The cases were heard at Wigan Magistrates' Court on 20 July.
People who dump rubbish will be caught. That's the message from Wigan Council officials after their latest success in tracking down fly tippers who dumped bags of rubbish and carpet cuttings in Ince. The culprits were traced when a council officer searched through bags of rubbish that had been dumped. The address which was for The Carpet Family, of Whelley, Wigan, led them to the two offenders, friends Craig Melling and Dean Litherland, Wigan Magistrates’ Court heard.
When interviewed Melling, 20, of Pear Tree Court, Aspull, and Litherland 20, of Haigh Road, Aspull, admitted dumping six black bin bags containing plastic sheeting general rubbish and carpet off-cuts at the side of the road in Ince.
Melling said they had been removing the rubbish "as a favour" for a friend he plays football with, who worked at the Carpet Family in Whelley, Wigan, but dumped it after discovering the local tip was closed.
Both men admitted a charge of depositing controlled waste on land at Seaman Way, Ince, on or about February 2.
Simon Ward, prosecuting on behalf of Wigan Council said Lee Haworth, a Senior Technician in the Council's Community Protection Department, went to the industrial estate after receiving a complaint that rubbish had been dumped there. He searched through the bin bags and found letters and paperwork with the Carpet Family address on. He contacted the company and staff said they had passed the rubbish on to Melling and Litherland to take to the local tip.
Mr Ward said both men made full confessions. He added: "Mr Melling said they had been told to take the rubbish to a tip in Hindley, but it was shut so they went to Seaman Way, saw waste was dumped there already and decided to leave it there." He said the defendants were of previous good character.
Melling, who works as a carpet buyer for a company called Furlong Flooring said: "I had been cutting bits of carpet at Carpet Family. I was doing my friend a favour, I didn't think." Litherland who works as a fabricator at Pearl Window Systems in Westhoughton added: "It was a stupid thing to do".
Both men were fined £320 each and were also ordered to pay a further £306.50 each towards court costs.