Residents quizzed over fly-tipping in Sheffield

This was found dumped on Rotherham Road, Beighton

Personal items belonging to people who paid others to dispose of their waste led Sheffield Council's environmental enforcement officers to their doors.

Those questioned had not fly-tipped themselves but had paid 'one man and a van' operators to dispose of their waste - only to find out that it had been dumped illegally.

Residents who pay waste disposal firms to get rid of their rubbish are responsible for ensuring that the operators are authorised.

If fly-tipping can be traced back to a particular resident, they face a fine of up to £5,000.

Fly-tippers themselves face a fine of up to £50,000 and five years’ imprisonment.

A Sheffield Council spokesman said: "Several householders in Sheffield have been interviewed under caution by the Council’s Environmental Enforcement Officers after their personal items were found amongst fly-tipped waste.

"The householders concerned had not fly-tipped the waste themselves but they had given the waste to ‘one man and a van’ operators without checking that these people were authorised to carry waste. Perhaps unsurprisingly, their waste was not disposed of correctly.

"One of the most common problems encountered by officers is that householders are being approached by rogue operators offering to remove waste for a ridiculously low price. The rogues cannot legitimately dispose of the waste for such a low figure. So they dump it and simply pocket the cash.

"Sometimes the rogue will simply turn up on the doorstep but some also print flyers advertising their services that look quite credible.

"But since 2005, householders have had a duty of care to take reasonable measures to ensure that household waste produced on their property is passed on only to an authorised person. So any householder who simply gives their waste away to one of these rogue operators with no questions asked is committing a criminal offence themselves.

"Should fly-tipped waste be traced back to a particular household, the penalty for not complying with the duty of care can be a fine of up to £5,000 - even though the householder did not dump the waste themselves."