City of York Council's Environmental Enforcement team is reminding residents and businesses not to illegally dispose of household or garden waste, or face a fine of up to £50,000 or a six-month prison sentence.

Within the last six months there has been five cases prosecuted in York Magistrates Court relating to fly tipping and the illegal disposal of unwanted goods.

On Thursday 5 November, Mr Yazicioglu who owns Castle takeaway in Selby, was fined £2,000 plus costs of  £1121.70 for not ensuring that his waste was disposed of properly.  Two of Mr Yazicioglu's employees illegally disposed of his waste using the companies vehicle.

The Environmental Enforcement team has successfully brought several cases to prosecution since May, involving dumping and illegally disposing of household waste. This has resulted in fines of up to £800 and community orders with up to 140 hours of unpaid work in the community.
 Liz Levett, the council's head of Environmental Enforcement, said: "We are sending out a strong message to businesses and residents in York, not to dump their unwanted goods illegally, or they could find themselves in court. We do a lot of work to support   local residents and businesses to keep their local neighbourhoods clean and ensure that York is a place to be proud to live in. However, some people still dump their rubbish without a thought to the nuisance and cost to us all.

"We would remind businesses to make sure that those they hire to take their rubbish away are authorised to collect and dispose of their waste. We know that a number of unscrupulous operators are taking advantage of residents by taking waste away and then dumping it. Some of these people may cold call residents or advertise their services using only mobile phone contact numbers.

"All residents have a responsibility (duty of care) to check that any company or individual they use to take away their rubbish has the correct licence - known a waste carriers' licence, and to make sure that they are given a notice which describes what is being taken away and full details of who it is who is removing the waste (known as a waste transfer note). If the person can't supply these details don't use them. By doing this householders can help reduce illegal waste disposal such as fly tipping, which costs the council thousands of pounds to clear each year, and enable us to trace those who are fly tipping."

The householders' duty of care was introduced in November 2005 and under this householders are required to take reasonable measures to ensure that waste from their property is only passed to authorised carriers. If they don't, and fly tipped waste is traced back to them, they could be fined up to £5000. By making the appropriate simple checks to ascertain the person taking their waste away is registered and getting the waste transfer note householders will comply with the duty

The Environmental Enforcement team will investigate incidents reported to them and where there is evidence of those responsible, will take legal action including prosecution.
Incidents can be reported by telephoning 01904 551551.