Resident thanked for helping bringing waste offender to justice

At around 7pm on 31 March 2021, a community-spirited member of the public spotted a van drive past him towards the dead end of the cul-de-sac at Cameronian Croft.

A short time later the van then drove past him again and left the area. Suspecting it had carried out the illegal dumping of waste, the resident saw a large deposit not there before, mainly timber and household items. Upon closer inspection he found a box with a name and address linking the waste back to Sussex.

Determined to get to the bottom of the attempt to blight his neighbourhood, the resident traced the person whose detail was on the box who advised he had used a company called Gloves Removal and Clearance to remove the waste the previous day.

A check of CCTV footage from the community centre on the same road where the incident occurred revealed the registration plate of the van – at which point the resident then contacted the council’s waste enforcement team.

Enquires then followed and the Sussex man said he had found the waste removal company on the internet when he wanted to clear items from where he had been living – and believed he had engaged the services of a reputable firm, being charged £325 to have the rubbish removed.

Photographs of the waste dumped in Bromford were then sent to the Sussex man, who verified that the waste was what he had given to the firm.

Council investigators then ran a check on the van’s registration plate and traced it to a hire firm in Stechford. The hire firm then produced a copy of an agreement with Gurdit Singh Sharma.

Enquiries into the case also revealed Gloves Removal and Clearance was a firm that appeared to be operated in partnership by Sharma and one of his relatives.

The evidence related to the vehicle hire prompted the investigation team to send a demand for information on who was in charge of the vehicle at the time of the offence.

Sharma gave the name of a man, purportedly living at an address in Alum Rock – but when the investigators went there, the resident said nobody of the name given was living at the address, and nobody had since they took up occupancy there in 1992.

A further letter and written caution was then sent to Sharma in May 2021, but nothing else has been heard from him since.

Sharma, aged 55, of Alcester Road South, was found guilty of two offences Environmental Protection Act 1990 after being tried in his absence at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court on 24 February 2023.

One offence was knowingly causing the waste to be deposited and the other for failing to supply written information as to how the business at Gloves Removals & Clearance, 334 Alcester Road, Birmingham disposes of its waste.

In sentencing, he was ordered to pay £5,000 for causing the deposit of waste, a further £1,000 for failing to comply with the demand for information notice and £4,143.35 in costs – a grand total of £10,143.35.

Commenting on the case, Cllr Majid Mahmood, Cabinet Member for Environment, at Birmingham City Council, said: “It’s clear from the many prosecutions and fixed penalty notices that we secure how seriously we take the issue of environmental crime.

“It’s not on, people rightly want clean streets in their neighbourhoods, and we will keep up our efforts to catch those with zero regard for our city.

“This case shows how important it is to ensure that you are engaging a reputable firm when disposing of waste – and it also shows how residents in our communities are committed to doing their bit to bring culprits to justice. I want to place on record my appreciation of the effort made by the resident who witnessed this incident and the council officers who investigated the case with diligence.”