Hilperton resident charged with fly-tipping following altercation with refuse collectors

Published 21 November 2024

A crew from Hills Municipal Collections, the council's waste contractor, were emptying recycling bins on Carisbrooke Cresent on 28 June 2023, when a Land Rover Freelander vehicle pulled up in front of the refuse vehicle, blocking their path.

The owner of the vehicle, later identified by Wiltshire Police as Reuben Spong, proceeded to take a blue-lidded wheelie bin out of the car and wheeled it towards the back of the refuse lorry. The refuse driver pressed the red emergency cut off button, preventing Mr Spong from being able to load the bin into the lorry.

Mr Spong then confronted the member of staff, ripping the red contaminated warning label off the bin that had been placed on by the refuse crew earlier that morning, asking if the loader was going to "f****** take it". The refuse loader advised that the bin would need to have the contaminated items removed before it could be emptied. Mr Spong pushed the bin towards the staff member, who opened the lid and seeing that it still contained the large, bulky plastic items, advised that he could not empty it. At this point, Mr Spong grabbed the bin, tipped the contents all over the road, wheeled it back to his car and drove off.

The bin had been tagged with a red hanger as part of the council's Recycling- let's sort it! awareness campaign, as it contained incorrect recycling and contaminated items. In this case, the bin contained large broken black plastic items and food waste, which cannot be accepted for recycling - the food waste should be added to the general household waste bin.

The council's Environmental Enforcement Officers were able to trace the owner of the vehicle with assistance from Wiltshire Police and he was prosecuted for fly-tipping. Mr Spong was due to attend Swindon Magistrates Court on 27 September but left before his hearing and was subsequently issued with a warrant for his arrest. He was arrested on 30 October, and on 8 November at Swindon Magistrates Court pleaded guilty to fly-tipping. He was fined a total of £1133, including costs.

Cllr Nick Holder, Cabinet Member for Highways, Flooding and Street Scene, said: We launched the Recycling - let's sort it! campaign to raise awareness in our communities about the items that can and cannot be recycled in blue lidded bins, and to increase our recycling efforts.

In this case, Mr Spong had items in his blue bin that we are unable to collect and our waste teams informed him of this with the red contamination hanger. If he removed the incorrect items, he could have put his bin out again at his next collection date. However, he took it upon himself to act inappropriately towards our contractors and fly-tip the waste in the street. This successful prosecution shows that we will not tolerate this type of behaviour towards our contractors, or fly-tipping in this way.

I'd like to thank the refuse collectors on that day for their diligence and professionalism in dealing with the situation, and also Wiltshire Police for helping us to track down and prosecute this man.

Nicola Towell, Contract Manager at Hills Municipal Collections, said, The way that Mr Spong acted towards our staff is totally unacceptable. Abuse of our staff, in any form, will not be tolerated and any threats towards them will be reported to the police.

The crews are here to help and have the right to work in a safe environment. I'd like to extend my thanks to both Wiltshire Council's Environmental Enforcement team and Wiltshire Police, who helped us find and prosecute this man.

To find out what can be recycled in the blue-lidded kerbside recycling bins, people can go to: www.wiltshire.gov.uk/recycling. Details of what can be placed in general household waste bins can be found at: www.wiltshire.gov.uk/household-waste

To find out more about how the council is tackling fly-tipping in Wiltshire, people should visit: www.wiltshire.gov.uk/fly-tipping

Topics:

• Highways and transport news
• Waste and recycling news

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