Three men dumped waste outside a York business – and now one of the culprits has been hit with a bill totalling nearly £20K.
Haizhou Zhou, 46, of Outgang Lane, Osbaldwick, York, pleaded guilty at York Magistrates’ Court to fly-tipping and a related waste disposal offence on Tuesday (7 May).
Mr Zhou and two unknown male accomplices were caught on CCTV arriving at Ocean Corals and Reptiles, Clifton Moor, on 26 May 2018.
The three men discarded waste from a hire van into a skip next to the business. The waste included black waste bags, a wooden pallet, strips of plastic, cardboard, and wooden boards.
The incident cost the owners of Ocean Corals and Reptiles £228 for an additional skip to get rid of the extra waste.
Fine and compensation
City of York Council officers investigated the fly-tipping as part of Operation Eyeball a multi-agency campaign to tackle illegal waste disposal.
They noted that some of the waste recovered from the site belonged to Pegasus Textiles, registered as Pegasus World Ltd, Outgang Lane, York, for which Mr Zhou is the company director.
York Magistrates fined Pegasus Textiles Ltd £13,200. The firm was also ordered to pay a surcharge of £170 and costs of £1,012 as well as repayment of the waste costs.
Mr Zhou was fined £3,938, ordered to pay a surcharge of £170 and costs of £500, as well as £228 compensation to Ocean Corals and Reptiles.
What to do with waste
The council is working with North Yorkshire Police’s Rural Crime team and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner to lead on the development of Operation Eyeball.
Together, this cross-county work to reduce fly-tipping aims to support communities to find alternative ways to recycle and reuse their waste, rather than resorting to dumping waste illegally.
To check if a carrier is licenced, visit: the Environment Agency register of waste carriers or call the Environment Agency on 03708 506 506.
Residents can take waste to our household waste recycling centres – see www.york.gov.uk/wasteandrecycling – or can arrange for the council to collect it via the council website.