Case Studies

Op catches fly tipper

by Mark Rowe

A sting operation using a forensic marking product has trapped a prolific fly tipper even though he tried to burn the evidence. Bromley Council and Kent County Council investigated when large quantities of dumped building waste began appearing in the countryside.

Working with SmartWater, council officers marked quantities of waste due to be collected by a contractor who was under suspicion with the company’s product. Soon after the waste was picked up from Lewisham it was found fly-tipped and set alight in Sevenoaks, Kent. However due to SmartWater’s resistance to extreme heat, investigators were still able to collect samples for laboratory analysis, which linked the refuse with the Lewisham sting site. Council officers took to court the waste operator, 46-year-old Jason Newnham, owner of JJ Clearances, Lewisham, for multiple offences under the Environmental Protection Act of 1990. Newnham pleaded guilty to ten charges brought by Bromley Council at Bromley Magistrates Court on August 6, with three other charges brought by Kent County Council taken into consideration. He was sentenced to 240 hours of unpaid work under a 12-month community order and ordered to pay £6,030 in compensation and clean-up costs.

Chief Executive of SmartWater Technology Limited, Phil Cleary, said after the case: “This is a perfect example of how we can deploy SmartWater to pro-actively fight crime by targeting persistent and prolific offenders. Through operations of this type we have amassed over 1,000 criminal convictions whilst maintaining a 100 per cent conviction rate in court. In the process of catching offenders we are educating others on the risks they run when SmartWater is in use through which we generate a powerful and longstanding deterrent. We look forward to using this approach on behalf of other councils whose countryside is blighted by fly tipping.”

The makers add that SmartWater can withstand exposure to a range of temperatures as well as long term exposure to sunlight.

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