Flytipper is fined £1,800 after dumping three fridges on one street… then trying to claim he was coming back to get them
A 44-year-old man has been fined £1,800 in total after dumping three fridges on a residential street in Wolverhampton and initially claiming he had planned to return for them. Algirdas Bardauskas was caught on CCTV depositing the fridges on Fold Street, prompting City of Wolverhampton Council's environmental crime team to trace the vehicle used via DVLA records before he admitted responsibility. The case highlights the council's use of camera evidence and vehicle-tracing to pursue fly-tipping prosecutions, and its reliance on public tip-offs to identify offenders.
Bardauskas, of Chester Street, Wolverhampton, dumped two fridges around 2.30pm on 3 August last year before returning with a third, using a van borrowed from its registered keeper. He initially told council officers he had needed the van emptied for work and intended to collect the fridges a week later, but claimed they had already gone by then. He pleaded guilty at Dudley Magistrates Court on 19 August to depositing controlled waste under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, receiving a £738 fine, a £295 victim surcharge and £1,793.16 in costs, which will fund the council's environmental crime service; the resident who reported him will receive a £100 gift card.
- Man fined £1,800 for dumping three fridges in Wolverhampton
- CCTV and DVLA records traced him via a borrowed van
- Whistleblower who reported the fly-tipping wins £100 gift card
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Fold Street in Wolverhampton is a residential road where three fridges were left abandoned, in what is known as fly-tipping: dumping waste illegally rather than disposing of it through proper channels. City of Wolverhampton Council runs an environmental crime team tasked with investigating this kind of offence, using tools such as CCTV footage and DVLA vehicle records to identify who is responsible.
The man at the centre of the case, Algirdas Bardauskas, was traced after a resident reported the dumped fridges. Fly-tipping is prosecuted under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, which makes it an offence to deposit controlled waste without authorisation, and cases like this are typically heard at magistrates' courts.
This kind of prosecution matters because fly-tipping is a persistent problem for councils across England, creating costs for clean-up and eyesores in residential areas. Councils often rely on members of the public coming forward with information, and some, including Wolverhampton, offer incentives such as gift cards to encourage tip-offs.