A VAN used by a serial fly-tipper who dumped rubbish in a disused builders' yard – even though it was a few hundred metres from a recycling centre – has been seized and destroyed.
The vehicle was spotted by a council officer who recognised its registration number from complaints made by residents in Martin Crescent a year earlier.
They reported the number plate in 2011 after the builders' yard near a rubbish tip in Factory Lane became a festering mound of waste.
Amy and Leslie Bushell were so frustrated by the council's inaction that they contacted the Advertiser, providing the registration details of vehicles involved.
Croydon Council said this week that the van and its registered keeper had been untraceable and, due to the scale of the problem, it eventually had to clear the privately owned land itself.
In October the fly-tippers returned and the site began to fill up with junk again.
The issue was again reported to the council's environmental enforcement team, who remembered the details of the van, which the culprit was then careless enough to leave next to the new pile of waste which had been dumped.
The person believed to be the owner of the vehicle at the time is now facing prosecution and van has been seized and crushed.
Councillor Phil Thomas, cabinet member for highways and environmental services, said: "We have zero tolerance to fly-tipping, and anyone caught illegally dumping waste – be that a single bin bag by the side of a tree or a tipper-load dropped on the road – can expect to be caught and punished."
