Fly tipper fined hundreds of pounds after dumping mattress in Halifax street

Isaac Khan, 21, appeared at Bradford and Keighley Magistrates Court on Tuesday charged with one fly tipping related offence.

The court heard that on July 20 2020 A vehicle was caught on a motorist’s dashcam leaving a mattress on the side of the road at Chelsea Mansions, Halifax.

The video was passed on to Calderdale Council, which eventually found that the driver of the vehicle, which was rented, was Khan, of Wightman Street.

Although Khan admitted being the driver, he told the Council it was his friend who had dumped the mattress.

Kaye Stephen, prosecuting on behalf of Calderdale Council, said: “He doesn’t speak to this friend anymore as a consequence of this incident.”

Speaking in court, Khan said he had recently started a new job as a bus driver, but was a student at the time of the incident.

He said: “We had picked up a mattress and we were supposed to deliver it to someone, but at the last minute they said they didn’t want it. I pulled over and he put it in the road.”

He argued that taking it to a tip wasn’t an option, as it was a hire car and he would not be registered to use a tip.

Chair of the bench Elizabeth Bourgeois said: “Fly tipping is a serious offence, and it was particularly problematic during lockdown. It effects how people think about where they live.

“When you’re friend suggested dumping the mattress you should have said ‘no, we’re going no further.'”

He was fined £538, ordered to pay court costs of £85 and £80 for the cost of removing the mattress.

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