Justice calls for Phone Book dumper
A man who claimed he had delivered 1,000 telephone directories when he had in fact dumped them on a city street has been ordered to pay £884 for his offences following an investigation by the council.
Imran Zafar, aged 30, of Ellesmere Road, Saltley, had been employed to distribute the BT Phone Books and collected them from the supplier on August 24 of last year.
A day later he visited Burbidge Road in Bordesley Green in his car and deposited the directories on the road.
He later accessed a work account online and marked that he had completed his delivery route, in order to be paid for the job.
However, Zafar was caught in the act of dumping the books thanks to a private CCTV system in the street, supplied to the council by a community-spirited local.
The council, as part of its investigations into the incident, contacted Zafar’s employer who cancelled his payment and removed a second route he was due to deliver books on.
Zafar confirmed he was the person in charge of and driving the vehicle at the time of the dumping, but gave no reason for his actions.
At Birmingham Magistrates’ Court yesterday (August 19) he pleaded guilty to two offences, one under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 for dumping the cellophane-wrapped bundles of phone books and a second under the Fraud Act 2006 for making a false representation stating the directories had been delivered when they had been deposited in Burbidge Road.
In mitigation, his legal representative said he was on universal credit and lived with his parents. He apologised for the offences.
Despite this, Magistrates sentenced him to £440 in fines (£320 for the dumping and £120 for the fraud), a further £400 in costs and a £44 victim surcharge.
Cllr John O’Shea, Cabinet Member for Street Scene and Parks at Birmingham City Council, said: “The brazen disregard for our shared environment is clear in this case – which has seen an individual openly dump materials on a public highway in broad daylight.
“But I am reassured and pleased we have people in our neighbourhoods who will not stand for this. I want to place on record my thanks to those who submitted their CCTV footage to ensure we could secure this prosecution.
“We know cleaner, greener, streets are a top priority for the people of Birmingham. That is why we are investing an extra £7.2million into services – this includes more CCTV cameras which can be moved around hotspot areas and the upcoming launch of Grime Watch, our YouTube series which will help us gain information on the identity of offenders so we can bring even more prosecutions.
“Those intent on committing environmental crime have been sent a clear message. If you commit these offences, the community will help us to get you convicted and this could cost you your job.”
