Flytipping is a problem in rural areas - our Investigator reports:

Sometimes the need arises for surveillance to be conducted in rural settings; I have dealt with issues for landowners and people living in the darkest depths of Dorset in the wee hours of the morning! Despite being cold and occasionally wet the job can be highly rewarding - and often gives me good reason to use specialist equipment. One case was that of a farm owner who suspected that a group of residents whose houses backed onto his fields were dumping garden and other rubbish such as tree cuttings and dog mess over their fences and into a remote and sometimes untended part of his land

The client had confronted some of the residents who subsequently denied any knowledge of the waste - safe disposal of which was continually causing the farmer problems. The residents claimed that a landscaping firm had disposed of the collective refuse from the six houses and the residents had ‘no idea’ where it went and strangely not one of them could remember the name of the firm that had been disposing of the waste!

A consultation with the farmer revealed that the depositing of the waste seemed to start around mid April. The farmer had noted that the residents seemed to be using chainsaws fairly late into the evenings, the whole row of houses seemed to be a hive of activity, usually accompanied by a rather smokey bonfire! I worked out a plan consisting of setting up a ‘hide’ at the end of March, giving the locals plenty of chance to get used to it over the coming weeks so that it would not arouse suspicion.

After adapting my sleep pattern somewhat I started observations in the second week of April. The hide was situated in such a way that approach was made along a hedge that was owned by the farmer. Armed with warm clothing, waterproofs, food, flask, sleeping bag and most importantly a Generation 2 Soviet night vision scope, I set myself up at around 5pm. Two nights went by with no action, although I did manage to see several foxes creeping around through the night scope!

On the evening of ‘day’ three I managed to hit the jackpot, two men could clearly be seen hauling rubbish over one of the fences of the houses. After about half an hour of throwing the collective cuttings onto what looked like a blanket, the men proceeded to walk up the pathway parallel with the farm and drag the offending articles towards the usual corner of the farm. Unfortunately one of the men had a partially reflective company logo on the back of his jumper! The client was given some still images obtained from a infra red camera, resulting with his solicitor finally being able to draw up a set of papers to be served on the individuals, which I also undertook a fortnight later.

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