Man fined £75 for dumping his rubbish - in a litter bin

With ten days to go until his next fortnightly rubbish collection, John Richards wanted to avoid a stink in his kitchen.

So he neatly packaged his food scraps in a carrier bag and deposited it in a public bin.

A few days later a letter arrived announcing he had been fined £75 - for 'mis-using' the bin by putting domestic refuse in it.



Council snoopers traced him after rummaging through the bag's contents, in which they found an envelope addressed to him.

Yesterday 84-year-old Mr Richards, of Boston, Lincolnshire, said: "I've been fined for putting my rubbish in a bin and that's just ludicrous. The council told me I was flytipping. But I've never thrown litter in my life."

A Boston Council spokesman said: "Public litter bins are for everyone to use. If one is repeatedly filled by an individual with their domestic waste it creates a problem."