Camera catches resident dumping his sofa in a roadside ditch

A surveillance camera caught Sebastian Korbut dumping a sofa in a roadside ditch in Burnham.

And on Wednesday (5 August) Wycombe Magistrates ordered Mr Korbut (38), of Grove Road, Burnham, to pay £2,218 in fines and legal costs, after he admitted flytipping in Crow Piece Lane on 19 February 2020.

The court was told that just after 11.30am on 19 February, a surveillance camera at Crow Piece Lane captured images of a sofa being dumped from a car by a man. Investigators from the Waste Partnership for Buckinghamshire used the registration number to trace Mr Korbut as the car’s keeper.

Mr Korbut said he had tried to take his old sofa to the local recycling centre during his lunch break, but it was closed.  When he saw other waste dumped in a roadside ditch he thought it was all right to dump his sofa there, too.

Mr Korbut admitted the offence before being shown surveillance camera footage and took full responsibility for what he had done.

Magistrates fined Mr Korbut £1,017 for dumping the sofa, and ordered him to pay £1,099 in clean-up, investigation and legal costs. With a victim surcharge of £102, his total penalty came to £2,218.

Bill Chapple OBE, Buckinghamshire Council Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change said: “It’s never a wise decision to think it’s OK to dump waste in a roadside ditch. You could easily be caught on camera, and the penalties are high!

“What’s more, it’s a blot on our beautiful landscape, and we won’t tolerate it, especially as we’ve made it easy and free to dispose of household waste at all of our household recycling centres.”

Mr Korbut’s case was brought by Buckinghamshire Council, one of the first for the new unitary authority. It has succeeded the Waste Partnership for Buckinghamshire, which prosecuted a total of 756 cases costing offenders a total of £1,093,817.