Werrington man feels the heat after burning fridges

Dumping and burning twelve fridges at Hollington near Tean has landed a Werrington man with 28 days to pay a bill of almost £9,500.

Magistrates at North Staffordshire Justice Centre ordered Mark Braddock, of Salters Lane, to pay Staffordshire Moorlands District Council's costs of bringing the prosecution totalling £9,438.75 and a surcharge of £60 when he appeared before them on Thursday (13 October).

He was also ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and given a 12-month community order and 12 month's supervision by the probation service after magistrates found Mr Braddock had acted deliberately and shown a lack remorse and understanding of the impact of his actions.

Mr Braddock was found guilty of:

• Depositing controlled waste
• Depositing controlled waste in a manner likely to cause pollution of the environment or harm to human health
• Carrying out a waste operation by burning

Councillor Arthur Forrester, cabinet member for the environment at the Council, said: "This is a great result which sends out the strongest message that irresponsible behaviour of this nature will not be tolerated and that the Council will always act to protect the wider interests of the community.

"I'd like to thank officers for their hard work in pursuing this case to this highly satisfactory conclusion and would urge anyone considering fly tipping to take heed of this prosecution and dispose of their waste items and refuse in the correct manner."