Fly-tipper jailed after dumping rubbish in middle of Blackpool street

Daniel Ashworth, 24, was jailed for 22 weeks and accomplice Ciaran Lonsdale was locked up for 23 weeks.

As he was led to the cells Lonsdale swore repeatedly at the chairman of the magistrates.

The court ordered that Lonsdale’s Transit van be seized and crushed and said he would have to pay £971 in costs and compensation.

Ashworth was also given a six-month driving ban and pay the same costs.

Twenty months ago Ashworth gained national notoriety when he was caught on camera driving down a street in Blackpool, in a hydraulic tipper truck.

He opened the rear tailgate spewing rubbish down the street as he drove off, leaving a trail of debris the length of the street.

Footage of the incident has been shared across the world on social media.

Yesterday he was found guilty of another offence of fly-tipping.

This time leaving a pile of waste wood in the middle of William Street,Blackpool.

Father-of-one Ashworth of Wray Grove, Anchorsholme, and accomplice 25-year-old Lonsdale of Birchway, Blackpool, claimed that someone had dumped the rubbish on their flatbed Transit van while they were buying pies at a nearby shop.

Ashworth claimed he had taken the rubbish off his van because if he had driven off with it on board he would have broken his court orders.

He said the other material on his van was waste food he and Lonsdale had picked up in order to feed Ashworth’s 30 pigs.

Prosecuting, for Blackpool Council, Mike Cavaney asked the duo whether they realised they were breaking the law by carrying waste pig feed.

Both men were found guilty of dumping waste,handling waste and carrying waste illegally.

He said: “What they did was a deliberate and reckless act and thoughtless in relation to the public.”

Ashworth was also found guilty of breaching his Criminal Behaviour Order.

The prosecutor said the incident in William Street during which the container of wood was left in the middle of the highway was captured on a taxi driver’s dash board camera.

It showed Ashworth smiling as he moved the wood on August 4 this year.

Blackpool Council street scene officer Jeremy Evans said his department had a budget of £3m a year of which nearly a third – £800,000 – is used to combat fly tipping.

He told the hearing: “This is a massive problem for Blackpool and bringing people to court is a difficult task as residents sometimes do not wish to give evidence.”

Lonsdale told the court: “We pulled up and a man asked if we would take waste. We said no but when we came back from the shop he had put the wood on the van so we took it off and left it.

“All we had was pig food, part of the food chain. A food firm give us the carrot ends and potato peelings for our pigs.” The prosecutor said: “This is some sort of fanciful story. Why didn’t you tell it at the start? Pig food is waste.”

Ashworth told magistrates: “I know about my criminal record for fly-tipping and I am ashamed and embarrassed by it.

“We put the wood back because I knew that if I drove off with it I would be breaking the court orders.”

He denied the prosecutor’s suggestion that he was “putting two fingers up at the council”.

Patrick Nelligan, defending Ashworth said: “This was not a massive tip it was a limited one.”

Robert Castle for Lonsdale said: “My client is in breach of a suspended jail term but it was imposed for a different type of offence. He is the registered owner of the van which was used but his grandmother paid for it at a cost of £4,000.”

Chairman of the bench James Dickinson told the duo: “We have taken into account the serious impact on the environment and the community.

“The £800,000 a year it takes to clear up after people like you has to be met by ratepayers paying increased council tax.”

John Blackledge, director of Community and Environmental Services at Blackpool Council, said: “This fly-tip was absolutely scandalous.

“The gall of these two individuals to dump this rubbish in a residential street in the middle of the day shows a complete lack of respect for this town and they both deserved the strongest sentence possible.

“For a repeat offender like Daniel Ashworth, it can only be a positive for Blackpool residents that he is taken off the streets.

“As the images show, getting away with fly-tipping is harder and harder and with the local community’s help, we have eyes and ears everywhere to catch people who try to break the law in this way.

“Fly-tipping is not only dangerous but it costs a lot of time and money to clear up.

“Without fly-tippers, our teams would be able to empty the bins more frequently and keep the streets cleaner.

“We need the community to stay vigilant to help us stop fly-tipping.

“People should only have their waste removed by legitimate registered waste carriers and offers to remove rubbish that seem too cheap to be true normally are.

“At the same time, I’d ask all residents to keep their eyes open for evidence of suspicious activity that may be related to fly-tipping, and report it to us online at www.blackpool.gov.uk/flytipping.”