LETTERS – £200 fine is completely derisory

Your report of a £200 fine for one of the few prosecuted flytipping crimes is completely derisory in terms of punishment and crime prevention.

I noted our councillors’ comments, but a magistrates’ court can give up to £20,000 and or six months in prison for such an offence, even more at crown court.

I also believe that a court has the power to take possession and dispose of a vehicle used in such an offence.

Compare the fine given with one a motorist can get for a moments inattention for being a few miles over a speed limit.

Part of this problem is the high landfill tax which impinges on the cost of skips and waste disposal and the micro management of the County Council’s Civic Amenity Sites with all their limitations.

Reduced funding to the Environment Agency and their consequent reduction of warranted and investigative staff did nothing for hardpressed councils landed with the results of this polluting, anti social crime.

When did you last see a court result of a flytipping by the Environment Agency?

Geoff Garner
West Pinchbeck