Father of four taken to court and fined ... because he overfilled his wheelie-bin by just four inches

Daily Mail 22 April 2008

With his rubbish collected only once a fortnight, Gareth
Corkhill's wheelie bin was so full the lid wouldn't
shut.

And for that, the father of four finds himself with a criminal record.

Magistrates convicted the 26-year-old bus driver after hearing
evidence that the lid was four inches ajar, which is against rules
to stop bins overflowing.

Scroll down for more...

Four inches too far: Gareth Corkhill with wife Claire and son
Josh

He was ordered to pay £210 - a week's wages - after he declined to pay an on-the-spot fine imposed by the local council's bin police, who visited him wearing stab-proof vests and carrying photographic evidence of his crime.

To add insult to injury he was told to pay a £15 victim
surcharge to help victims of violence - despite there being no
victim - and threatened with prison if he failed to pay.

Rapists, murderers and other violent criminals who have earned a jail sentence rather than a fine are immune from the penalty.

Yesterday the council, Copeland in Cumbria, said that Mr
Corkhill's family had caused problems for "the battle to
reduce waste".

His penalty compares with the typical on-the-spot fine of £80 given to shoplifters - even repeat offenders.

For failing to pay his fine Mr Corkhill, from Whitehaven, will
now have a criminal record which he will have to disclose if he
applies for a job, credit or a mortgage over the next five
years.

Even after that he will have to reveal his crime if he applies for a job in the NHS, working with children, in a bank, or as a security guard.

"I can't believe I now have a criminal record for
simply putting rubbish in my bin," he said. "My only
crime was to leave the lid slightly open. Now I might go for a job
interview and be better than someone else but the employer will see
that officially, I am a criminal.

"They won't know the details of what I did. They won't know that I only put a little too much rubbish in the bin."

Scroll down for more...

Mr Corkhill's troubles began last summer when the two
enforcement officers arrived at his home. They cautioned him before
issuing a £110 on-the-spot fine for failure to close the lid
of his wheelie bin.

He was told he had six months to pay or he would be taken to court. By January he had still not paid and was sent a summons under the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005, which gave powers to town hall officials to hand out fines to rubbish rulebreakers.

Last week Whitehaven magistrates convicted him in his absence of
"over-filling the receptacle used to dispose of waste" -
a criminal offence.

They added £100 towards prosecution costs on top of the
original fine, together with the £15 surcharge designed to
help victims of violence.

Mr Corkhill, who takes home £900 a month, added: "I
would have been better off throwing my rubbish across the front
garden - at least then I would only have received an £80 fine
for fly-tipping.

"It's outrageous what they've done to me. We got a
leaflet, like everyone else, nine months previously, explaining the
new council policy which also made it a fineable offence for
putting your bin out any earlier than 7am - a curfew for a bin.

"My wife and I put it in the recycling box and continued as
normal. Then this happens. What can I do? If I didn't pay they
said that I could go to prison. They also threatened to clamp my
car and send the bailiffs round.

"We recycle everything we can, including plastics,
cardboard, tins, glass and paper. We have got a black box that is
always full."

A spokesman for Copeland Council said Mr Corkhill's
recollection of the distance his bin lid was open was wrong and it
was "more like seven inches". He added: "We will
continue to crack down on the problem of overflowing
bins."

The case comes against a background of growing numbers of
on-the-spot fines handed out by bin police to those who break
rubbish rules.

In the 12 months up to April last year, nearly 44,000 were fined
because they failed to close bin lids, put their rubbish out on the
wrong day, or left extra black bags alongside their bins.

UK Lockdown point of view
This was pre-planned years in advance by the elite who decided that it was necessary to introduce totalitarianism gradually into our society so that it would go unnoticed by the majority of the population it was being imposed upon, our society is subtly being transformed into a centrally controlled (communist / fascist) state and this story is just another example of how they are conditioning the mass public mind to accept gradual enslavement by the state.