Rugby supermarket 'manager' convicted of 13 charges of fly-tipping

[dutchman]

Rubbish from his store was repeatedly left dumped by a litter bin



A Coventry 'manager' of a Rugby town centre supermarket has been convicted of more than a dozen fly-tipping offences. Albert Writer was found guilty of repeatedly allowing rubbish from his store to be dumped next to a litter bin.

Rugby Borough Council's environmental health and community safety team initially launched an investigation after CCTV captured footage of a lorry making a delivery to Kwahu Supermarket. Once unloaded, a man and a woman were seen leaving cardboard, shrink wrap and pallets piled next to a litter bin opposite the High Street store.

After the incident on October 20 2022, a further dozen fly-tipping incidents were caught on camera during the following month. The council team found that Albert Writer and Samuel Owusu were both sundry debtors to the business rates account for the supermarket.

Both had given the same property in Foleshill Road, Coventry as the billing address. The council said that after confirming the supermarket had no contract in place with the council for the collection of commercial waste, an environmental health officer wrote to both Mr Writer and Mr Owusu.

This led Mr Writer to call the council and confirm he was the store's manager. During an interview under caution, Writer again confirmed he was responsible for the running of the supermarket.

He said waste from the store should have been stored on the premises before being collected by a registered waste disposal firm. Writer admitted failing to instruct the woman caught on camera fly-tipping on October 20 2022 of how the store disposed of waste.

He also failed to produce waste transfer notes to demonstrate the supermarket's rubbish was disposed of legally, despite the council requesting copies of the notes. But at Coventry Magistrates Court, Writer pleaded not guilty to 13 charges of fly-tipping and a charge of failing to produce waste transfer notes.

Writer told the court he was helping his friend, Mr Owusu, by working at the supermarket and had referred to himself as the 'manager' as a cultural term for 'helping out'. This was, according to the council, despite evidence showing he was a leaseholder of the supermarket and was responsible for paying its business rates.

Magistrates found Writer guilty of all charges at the hearing on Tuesday, February 11 and fined him £700 for the fly-tipping offence committed on 20 October 2022.

No separate penalty was imposed for the other 12 fly-tipping offences and the failure to produce waste transfer notes. Magistrates also ordered Writer to pay a victim surcharge of £280 and the council's costs - £1,500.