Episode 8 Filthy Rotten Scoundrels

On every street in Britain, the fight is on to keep it clean.

It's an environmental issue, an eyesore.

It's just not what people want to see.

Every day thousands of tonnes of rubbish

is dumped right across the UK.

Whether it's cigarettes, dog mess, or bags of builders' rubble,

this mucky mess is wrecking our cities and countryside.

Coming up on today's programme...

An undercover operation to work out who dumped this lot at a church.

Thank you very much. Goodbye.

Tomorrow at 9.30, which means we're going to have a busy day tomorrow.

A nursery hit by fly-tipping.

It really does make me angry and very disappointed.

Everything we've tried hasn't worked.

And in East London, a rather fishy tale.

Officers are on the hunt for someone who's been dumping bags

of stinking, rotten, fish guts.

Fish juice and guts were running down through the skylight

into the basement below where the offices are.

The business had to vacate the premises for three days.

It became unoccupiable because of the smell.

This is the fight against Britain's filthy, rotten scoundrels.

Enfield, London, and officers Jeff, Lee and Dave

have a busy day ahead of them.

They're planning a sting operation

as part of an investigation into illegal fly-tipping in the borough.

That's the flyer that they delivered in an address in Southgate.

The plan is to phone them and arrange an appointment to meet them,

tomorrow morning at about 11.

The property we're using tomorrow then...

-Yes?

-Who owns this?

That's all concluded.

The officers have been investigating a number

of serious fly-tips in Enfield and one was even outside a church.

A number of people claimed they paid a company

to take rubbish away from their homes.

It's this company the officers need to speak to about the dumping.

As the same people appear to be linked to more and more fly-tips,

officers decided enough was enough.

They were involved in other instances

of fly-tipping in locations that we've already found fly-tipping,

but at that time I couldn't prove it.

I only have evidence of two.

How much waste are we talking about, then?

That's the amount that was dumped in the driveway to the church.

That's a lot of waste.

That's the lot that was dumped in the parade behind the shops.

-How much tonnes of waste would you say?

-A couple of tonnes.

Have there been any instances since the last one at the church?

None have been reported to us. There's been fly-tipping

but there might not have been evidence.

Once we've searched their vehicle,

I'm looking for links to any other offences.

The first part of the officers' plan

is to call the number on a flyer for the company.

They hope that they'll agree to collect some waste

from a property tomorrow. Time to make that phone call.

We've got one PC and one PCSO.

But the PC would effect the arrest.

The conversation will be recorded, but will they take the bait?

Hello, there. I've got some waste I need to be removed.

We're actually in EN3.

Yeah, off of the...Bullsmoor Lane.

Yeah.

No problem.

Thanks.

She's going to call back.

They've managed to make contact, but have they suspected anything?

Will they call Dave back?

Hello?

No problem.

We're doing a refit of the kitchen.

We've got some other bits later on but we're refitting the kitchen.

So obviously we've got some kitchen units, tiles, plasterboard,

stuff of that nature.

Just general building stuff.

Well, ideally, we're looking for tomorrow if possible.

9.30, yeah?

If you get lost or you have trouble finding it, give me a ring.

No problem.

Thank you very much. Bye-bye.

Dave's got a result. The company agreed to come to the address.

Time to work out a plan for tomorrow.

Right. I think it's best we meet on site. I'll phone the police today.

We'll actually meet on site and do all the briefings in the house.

We'll meet at 8 o'clock on the site, yeah? And we'll jacket all up.

Tomorrow at 9.30, which means we'll have a busy day tomorrow.

Part one of the operation has been a success, but how will it unfold?

The officers are all set for their sting operation.

Jeff, you're outside. Me and Dave are in the kitchen.

You guys are going to be with the camera on standby.

But could the van be a no-show?

This is the nervous bit. Waiting.

There's nothing else to do.

Just wait and see if they turn up.

In the coastal district of Tendring in Essex,

the Council's Darren Weaver is chasing fly-tippers

and the 30-year-old special investigations officer has a lead.

Basically, we're in Dovercourt near Harwich.

I've had a report of some fly-tipping.

It looks like it's quite a regular occurrence, by the look of it.

A few different sites of dumping.

It doesn't look like they're all from one occasion.

What's worse is this is a shocking location for anyone to dump rubbish.

Right next to a kids' play area.

A football pitch there.

You can see that they use this as a cut-through.

The last thing you want is them cutting themselves on glass,

or cutting themselves on anything there.

As if that's not bad enough,

the site also backs onto the Buckets And Spades nursery

and after-school club where around 80 children come to play.

It's not always fun and games for the kids or owner, Mary Piper,

who has to live with this day in, day out.

-What are you planting today, then?

-A tomato.

As we run a nursery and it's caring for children

and people want a clean, healthy environment,

it's very difficult, when as people drive in,

they see the absolute mess out at the front there.

Because that isn't taken care of, we get the fall-out from that.

The problem escalates because if there's one lot of rubbish

it looks like a messy area. It looks like a rubbish dump,

so people start to think they can dump their rubbish there as well.

So it's just a spiral that goes on and on.

It really does make me angry and very disappointed,

but we feel helpless to do anything about it.

Everything we've tried hasn't worked.

No pressure then!

Darren's an ex-London policeman who has first-rate detective skills.

He'll find out who's responsible for this dangerous mess

and bring the fly-tippers down.

But first it's back to basics.

He needs to find clues.

I'm going to search through all the sites.

I wouldn't say it's the best part of my job

but the bit I like the most, which is the prosecuting,

taking people to court, I can't do unless I do this bit.

So it's taking the rough with the smooth, really.

Getting my hands dirty and looking for evidence is all part of my job.

If it's got to be done, it's got to be done.

The tiniest detail could give Darren a break.

But it's not just the mess this dumped stuff makes.

It also carries danger, too.

This is obviously a big problem that we have.

Sometimes when waste gets dumped,

people think, "Oh, I know, I'll set fire to it, because that's fun."

Apparently, that's what they think.

In an area like this, if they do it, the fire could spread.

Sometimes they set fire to it to hide any evidence within the bags.

But Darren knows exactly what he's looking for

and not even a fire will stop this enviro-enforcer.

I can already see something that looks like a letter.

Obviously someone's attempted to burn this.

But I can still read it.

Whoever dumped this may have thought they got rid of the evidence.

Not so.

The reason for me taking these photographs is so that

when we do finally put a case together we can show continuity

from where we found the evidence, the leads and enquiries we've done,

to try and trace it, to show that we have found it in this site.

I'll be taking that with me.

Then unbelievably Darren realises that the letter looks familiar.

A letter here from us.

And what's more, it's not just one letter.

I've got a number of letters here.

They're quite personal

council letters and Department of Work and Pensions.

A good bit of history.

And it's only just been set alight. It's still wet. It's been put out.

I'll start doing some enquiries.

There's not a moment to lose.

Darren's determined to find out who's been dumping dangerous waste

and burning it next to the nursery.

He's not in the mood for messing around and is heading

straight for the address he found on the burnt-out letter.

I'll ask him straight out.

"Why are your letters within rubbish that's been burnt at a dump site?"

And see what he has to say. He might have an explanation

or he might just put his hands up and say, "Well, I done it."

Then what I'd do is caution them,

the reason being if I don't caution them,

anything they say after I've spoken to them regarding the offence

they can deny and say, "He never cautioned me.

"I didn't know he was going to use it in evidence."

They'll give me an explanation of some kind and then I'll invite them

for a PACE interview and I'll question them on tape.

Anything they say is important to my case and I can use it in evidence.

Darren is in his element.

He likes getting his teeth stuck into an investigation.

It's a buzz.

That's the whole fun of it, when I know that I'm onto something.

That burnt thing is a treasure map. I'm on the hunt for the treasure.

I'm going to go and find it.

And he's getting closer to finding his pot of gold

but he hasn't quite found where X marks the spot.

As Darren arrives at the address on the burnt envelopes,

he manages to get into the property but what will he find inside?

KNOCKING

Britain is famous for some fantastic fresh fish.

Grilled, steamed or battered with chips and ketchup

there's absolutely nothing better.

In Tower Hamlets, in east London, the fish on the menu was unsavoury

as Environmental Services found themselves

on the trail of a very fishy tale.

Council enviro-enforcer Dave Masters was in charge of the investigation.

We deal with bags of waste all over the borough all day long

but the level and nature of the complaints,

we could tell this was something different.

David was called out to locations across the borough

where huge bin bags of rotting

fish were spilling their guts across the streets.

The stench had to be smelt to be believed.

Before I even opened the bin I could smell this dreadful smell.

When I got them onto the footway and opened them up,

they contained fish guts, heads, scales, lots of blood.

It looked like the fish had probably been there in the bin for a few days.

We had to have masks on and gloves to protect ourselves.

The smell was unbearable.

David has seen and smelt some horrific sights in his 20-odd years

in the job but this illegal dumping took his breath away.

I had to back off for a few minutes and then have another look at it.

One business in the area suffered more than most

as the fish-dumping nightmare escalated.

Bags of rotting fish were placed in a bin outside their offices.

They had a refuse container on hire from the council.

Blood and fish juice and guts were running down through the skylight

into the basement below where the offices are.

As a result, the business had to vacate the premises for three days.

It became unoccupiable because of the smell

and it took three days to clean it all up before the smell subsided

and they could go back into their premises again.

Despite the terrible stink, no-one had seen anyone

abandoning the bulging bin bags

and David had no idea who was behind this terrible enviro crime.

After days of detailed work, his investigation struck gold.

A late-night club had a CCTV camera trained on one of the streets

where the fish were being dumped.

Would their footage shed any light on the perpetrator of this deed?

They kindly let us view their CCTV footage.

We wondered what they'd captured. It was fantastic, because they captured

the vehicle pulling into Ebor Street from Redchurch Street.

Hardly anyone around in the morning, 4 o'clock, deserted.

Turned his lights off, opened his side door up, bag on the footway

and away within a minute,

back on to Bethnal Green Road and on to Billingsgate Market.

But David' lucky break was short-lived.

Unbelievably, the footage was too grainy to identify the man

or the number plate of the van.

Frustrated, David was back to square one.

He decided to ramp up the investigation.

Calling in colleagues, he mounted a stake-out on the streets

where the fish was turning up

in the hope of catching the fish-dumping fiend red-handed.

We decided to do surveillance to see if we could catch the person.

So on a few evenings and early mornings, we sat here in cars

waiting for the person to come along.

From the footage we had from the private members' club,

we knew what time the person turned up and which direction they came in.

Unfortunately, on the three evenings we turned up here

and parked up, he didn't turn up.

The dumping changed to another part of the borough.

David was no further forward in his investigation.

And the bags were now turning up in a completely different location.

The pavement outside Mr Kaya's clothes shop

became the latest target for the fish-dumper to spread his stench.

He was in front of our shop before we was opening the shop

and we seen a few bags.

It smells like... Really, I can't explain.

It was very, very bad. We can't stay here.

And the customers didn't want to come in the shop.

They was running away.

We couldn't touch it, we don't know what it is.

With local people distressed and businesses losing customers,

David wasn't going to let the tipper get away with it.

Bags oozing with stinking contents were still arriving on the pavement

outside Mr Kaya's shop. So David's investigation intensified.

He mounted not one but two CCTV cameras either side of the premises.

24-hour surveillance was now under way.

Would the rotten scoundrel turn up or would he have changed location

and slipped away as the net closed in?

We knew we had some quality footage because we'd seen the bags appearing.

We just hoped that we'd got sharp images of the number plate,

and of the person getting out. That was important.

We knew we'd captured something, but we were very anxious

about the quality of the image.

This time, David took no chances.

Camera number one was trained on the shop front so he could get a

clear view of the van, number plate and the person involved.

He was determined to catch the scoundrel responsible.

It doesn't get much worse than the smell of rotting fish.

The dumping was taking place here,

so we had the camera focused right on this spot.

It didn't matter if the van parked ten metres away, we got it all.

This camera was no ordinary, bog-standard camera.

David had it fitted with top-of-the-range gear.

We had a night-vision lens put in. We got number plates.

We got the person getting out of the vehicle.

We could see what they were wearing,

their build, their height.

But it was the second camera that finally caught the man in the act.

From the other camera on this side of the street,

we actually got Mr Kendry opening the side door of his van,

lifting bags out and lowering them onto the street.

Back of the net. David had the fish-dumper banged to rights.

He had fantastic footage.

But to make the case completely watertight, David also set up

another surveillance sting to track the van's movements.

And when his colleagues followed their target,

they were amazed at what they found.

Early Saturday morning, he turned up.

He got out of his van and he dumped the bags.

They followed him to Billingsgate fish market where he bought fish.

They then followed him all the way over to Westminster,

to Church Street Market, where he set up a fish stall.

It's probably no surprise, but the man was in the business.

He was a fishmonger and somebody who should have known better.

Fishmongers routinely create lots of waste as they gut and clean fish,

but they have to dispose of it safely,

not put it out for the bin men.

Paul Earles of Moxon's Fishmongers in south-east London

has been a fishmonger man and boy,

and certainly knows how to get rid of guts.

The fish is cleaned on the block and then it'll go into the bin

and then it's taken and put into a container,

which we ice at night to keep it nice and cool.

Then it's taken away to be incinerated.

This good fishmonger knows the importance of happy neighbours.

Being part of the community,

we obviously have a responsibility to keep everyone around us happy

and keep the smell and everything to a minimum.

So the more regularly we have the waste collected,

the more we manage our waste properly, the happier everyone is.

Too true, Paul.

After surveillance of Mr Kendry

running his fish stall in Westminster, he was arrested.

He sold his fish five miles away from where he dumped his rubbish.

Talk about not in my backyard, please.

On questioning, he initially seemed unconcerned about all the...ahem...

HADDOCK he'd been causing in east London.

He seemed very blase about it. Very cool, calm, collected.

But the phantom fish-dumper's slippery

ice-cool soon evaporated when David showed him the CCTV footage.

At that point, he didn't want to answer any more questions.

I think he started to realise the gravity of the situation.

He asked for a solicitor, we terminated the interview,

and he was charged with eight counts

of illegal storage and disposal of commercial waste.

Stitched up like a kipper.

Mr Kendry took the rap.

He pleaded guilty to all eight charges.

He was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £2,300 costs.

He knew he was doing something wrong, but I don't think he realised

the gravity of the situation. He probably thought,

"It's one bag. I'll leave it here and they'll pick it up."

What he wasn't taking into account was its smell and offensive nature.

The effect on local businesses,

the cost to the council of picking it up and jet-washing the streets.

This was a steady trickle of waste over a period of months.

After lots of hard work, it was a great outcome for David.

It was extremely satisfying.

It's months of work gone into getting this person to get to court.

When you get a successful verdict, that's what you're looking for.

Still to come on Filthy Rotten Scoundrels...

In Tendring on the Essex coast, enviro-enforcer Darren Weaver

is on the hunt for a person who dumped and set light to a fly-tip

near a children's play area.

What will he find inside the flat where the letters have come from?

And in Northwest London, could CCTV be the saviour of the day

for one officer that's determined to nail these brazen fly-tippers?

They were sufficiently serious to merit prosecution.

But first...

Back in Enfield in London, it's 8am on day two of a sting operation.

A company has agreed to come to a house to pick up some waste.

They think they're going to be collecting an old kitchen

but when they arrive, they'll be met by officers Dave, Jeff and Lee.

Lee kicks off the morning by briefing everyone.

OK, let's just run through it.

You're outside, me and Dave are in the kitchen.

You guys are going to be in the front room, waiting on standby.

They'll be pulling up.

We start recording their activities.

Take some photographs as well. You've got your camera organised.

The officers are desperate to speak to the people

about a number of serious fly-tips that have happened in the borough,

including one at a local church.

The officers need to surprise them like this

to guarantee they'll turn up, and then they can be interviewed.

They'll be checking if they have a waste carrier's licence

and whether they're involved with the illegally dumped waste.

As Jeff parks up out front,

Lee briefs the police.

This is all on private land,

so we need to establish how that waste got there from that house.

Officer Dave has got the whole plan covered.

What I'll do is, when they come, they'll come to the front door.

The police officers and support will be in the living room,

the living room door will be shut.

They'll come in through the front door into the kitchen.

The back gate is locked and secure.

The back door will be shut.

We can bring them into the kitchen, confirm their identities,

confirm they are who we're looking for,

confirm that we believe they are the ones who are suspected

of fly-tipping offences.

The officers aren't sure these people are responsible

for the fly-tips, but that's the reason for this operation.

They need to speak to them face to face about what's been going on.

Everyone's set. Now, all they can do is sit and wait.

This is the nervous bit, waiting.

There's nothing else to do.

Just wait to see if they turn up.

It's now 9.20 and the van is due in just ten minutes.

MOBILE RINGS

Hello?

Hello there.

Yep.

We're the second turning on the right after the right-hand bend.

All right, then.

Cheers. Bye-bye.

-They're about 15 minutes away.

-They're 15 minutes away.

So the 15-minute countdown has begun.

Have they smelt a rat, or will they turn up?

Then, just on cue, a truck pulls up.

-It's them.

-Stand by.

And they've now got to the front door.

Time to have a chat with them.

The reason we called you out, we're from Enfield Council.

We'd like to have a chat with you about some fly-tipping.

If you want to come inside, we'll have a chat about that.

Yeah? Cos we've got some evidence related to some fly-tips.

We'll discuss that shortly.

My name is David. I'm an Environmental Crime Officer.

Lee is a colleague of mine. He also works for Environmental Crime.

Obviously, we're from the police.

You don't have to say anything,

but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned

-something which rely on in court.

-It's all going to plan so far.

Still to come... Find out how the interview pans out.

Do you recognise the fly-tipping here?

Do you recognise any of this waste?

But could there be more to this story than first meets the eye?

Could it be someone else that's fly-tipping?

When you passed the waste on to him at any time, did you ask him

where he was going to take it or how he was going to dispose of it?

Back in Tendring, and the district council's enviro-super-sleuth

Darren Weaver is investigating fly-tips in Dovercourt.

They're not just an eyesore,

but a liability for the kids at a local nursery and after-school club.

It really does make me angry and very disappointed,

but we feel helpless to do anything about it,

because everything we've tried hasn't worked.

Darren has found burned letters in the fly-tip

and is taking no prisoners on this one.

He's heading straight to the address of the envelopes

to confront the person face-to-face.

186.

184.

What number are you, please?

-182.

-182. Thank you.

180 as well?

You might be able to help me, as it goes.

The address he's looking for is above the estate agents.

I've just spoken to this lady and gentleman here,

and the person I'm looking for hasn't live there for...

-How many years would you say?

-Over two years.

-Over two years.

But someone else does live there. They're not there at the moment

due to personal reasons.

I'll make a note of their name and there's some more enquiries I can do.

The man whose name is on the envelope

hasn't lived in the flat for more than two years.

The flat isn't currently let out and the estate agent owns it,

so he's agreed to let Darren have a look around.

Lovely.

Hello? KNOCKING

Hello?

Darren hasn't found else to help his investigation from inside the flat.

It's empty and is being redecorated so it can be let out again.

I've finished in there.

D'you know it is all open up there?

-The lock's been cut off.

-OK. As long as you're aware.

-Well, thanks for your help.

-Thank you.

-No worries.

-Take care.

Take care. Bye-bye.

With no more clues from the flat or the estate agents,

Darren's heading back to the office to crack on with the investigation.

Darren's patch of Tendring is a seaside district,

so it's no surprise that he has to keep an eye on the ports

that lie along its 36 miles of coastline.

He's got another case that needs his urgent attention.

Harwich has been a gateway to northern continental Europe

since the 1880s, and Darren isn't happy

about how people have been treating it.

We're in Harwich, You've got Harwich International Docks here.

When people are coming into the country from France or wherever,

they're getting off the ferry,

they're coming out and the first thing they're seeing

is this service station with loads of rubbish everywhere.

And they're thinking, "Cor, this is nice. This is England for you."

I don't want people to think that.

I don't want them think, "What a dump!"

Cos it's first impressions and all that.

They're going to think, "What a dump! I don't want to stay here."

Go from there, go straight into the exit thinking, "Go again."

Darren's right. This rubbish just gives us a bad name.

But this isn't just fly-tipping. This is littering pure and simple.

I'm going to treat this more of a...

This is an accumulation issue. The site in general has got a problem.

It looks like this place has been hit by every man and his dog.

Rubbish attracts rubbish. They say,

"Everyone else seems to be dumping their waste here, it must be OK,

"or if it ain't OK, I'm not going to get caught."

Bosh, and they dump it out the window, dump it here and again

no-one to overlook it. Look. If you're parked up here,

who's going to be looking at you? No-one.

This is something that Darren has seen time and time again.

What I don't want to happen is the little bits of waste accumulate

and one day someone going, "I've got half a tonne of bricks here.

"Where can we get rid of it? There's a petrol station round the corner."

And it's more prevention. And if you keep an area tidy,

it's less likely to be dumped on. If you go to tidy areas

with lovely greens and no waste, people don't fly-tip there.

We keep it tidy, number one,

we're more likely to get reports of fly-tipping,

number two, we're less likely to get fly-tipping,

and number three, it looks nicer when people come into our country

and they're seeing an old forecourt, but it's still tidy.

This forecourt is privately owned,

so Darren's determined to save taxpayers' money.

I don't think it's right for the council to pay to clear this.

D'you know what I mean?

Whoever owns this land, they need to clean this.

I'll get the person who should be sorting it to sort it.

That's right, Darren, you tell 'em.

He's concentrating his skills on the case of the burnt letters

that he found near the children's nursery.

He's now back at headquarters and is trying to track down the man

whose name was on the envelopes.

He's using all the resources within the council that might have

contact details for the man, and first up is the housing department.

Hello, is Charlie there, please?

I need to speak to her pretty urgently.

Yeah. Thank you.

Hello, Charlie, are you all right?

Yeah.

Let me just write this down.

July 2006, Feb 2008, yep.

If I can do some investigation over the phone, it saves me legwork.

Where did he move to, do you know?

For Benefits, have you got a direct number for anyone?

I'll drop you an e-mail, let you know what happens.

All right, bye.

You can see her views are strong.

When I told her why I was investigating, she was like,

"Oh, I hope you catch them,"

She's thinking, "How dare someone take stuff

"and set it alight next to a kids' play area?"

Next on his list is the Benefits department.

What about their date of birth? Is that on there?

OK. All right, and another quickie if that's all right.

Have you got the National Insurance number on him?

Darren's also been given some extra information to help him.

This bloke here used to live on the High Street in Dovercourt.

He moved from the High Street and took everything with him.

So I know that this letter has been moved

from the High Street to Harwich.

But Harwich is where the leads try up.

Despite picking up on other leads,

Darren can't track down where the man is now.

But there is some good news.

I've now got contacts in Housing, who's now been given authority

because of this one telephone call to give me whatever information I want.

Benefits will give me whatever information I want.

You're all individual departments

and you've got to be given authority to speak. It's all Data Protection.

But I'm creating links within this and we're all becoming

almost like a multi-agency approach within one council.

I find out where you live, I find out what benefits you're getting,

I find out your history, everything within a few telephone calls.

People will know "Speak to Darren cos something will be done."

or I'll ring them up and they'll be on their computer helping me out.

This investigation is clearly going to keep Darren busy for some time,

but he's determined to crack it.

The other case at the port of Harwich also kept Darren busy,

but he managed to get the owners to clear it up.

Now when people come off the ferry from abroad,

they're not greeted by mounds of rubbish. Nice one, Darren.

No case is easy for him to solve, but what keeps him going

is the knowledge that every day his work is making a difference.

Every case, even if there's no conviction at the end of it,

is a benefit and it makes the next case likely to be solved quicker

and people are more aware, thinking, "It ain't worth it."

I want them to go, "For the sake of 50 quid, 100 quid,

"Let's get a skip, otherwise we're going to have Darren on our case."

People go, "Oh, you're the geezer from the council, aren't you?"

And I think the message is getting across. I hope it is.

So, fly-tippers, take note.

If you're anywhere near Tendring, there's one man

who is more than likely to one day come knocking on your door.

Fly-tipping - the scourge of our streets.

Each year, a 1 million fly-tipping incidents are dealt with

by local authorities, costing them a shocking £74 million to clear up.

In Brent, a large borough in Northwest London,

enviro-enforcer John Swan is fighting back

against the tide of filth swamping our cities,

and household waste is his biggest enemy.

It costs this borough £700,000 a year to clear up and investigate.

And one beautiful summer's day in 2008 brought another instance

of the rubbish mountain that John is trying to control.

We received a phone call about large fly-tip that had been dumped

at the end of a cul-de-sac in Wembley.

Initial investigations revealed a CCTV camera that,

by sheer luck, covered the location where the dumping took place,

and lo and behold, the dirty rotten scoundrels were caught in the act.

There was general household waste, boxes, broken tables, chairs, bags...

An instance like this that you see on this CCTV.

This is such a brazen offence of dumping,

regardless of any environmental impact or danger,

and as far as I was concerned serious enough to merit prosecution,

and that's what occurred.

Britain supposedly has the most CCTV cameras in Europe,

and it seems like Big Brother is watching us wherever we go,

but for John and enviro-enforcers, CCTV has been an invaluable

tool in the fight against crime,

and this camera was worth its weight in gold -

not only did it capture the culprits red-handed,

but John was also able to identify the suspects.

They only lived round the corner.

Have they never heard of the old saying that goes a bit like,

"You shouldn't dump on your own doorstep"?

So we were able to go and identify the householder

and he was subsequently invited in for interview.

The culprit denied the charges, but John had an ace up his sleeve.

When we showed him the CCTV, it identified him and three others.

If John had £1 for every sudden change of heart when the culprit

sees himself on camera, he'd be a very, very rich man today.

Once he'd seen the CCTV coverage,

of course, he readily admitted it was his responsibility.

It's the lack of thought that gets enviro-enforcer John's back up.

He had no care about the environment

and the impact of dumping on the pavement.

Mr Samini pleaded guilty at Brent magistrates' court

to illegal dumping and was fined £450 and ordered to pay £250 costs.

It can carry a maximum fine in a Magistrates' court of £50,000

or six months' imprisonment,

and that can move to five years' imprisonment at the crown court,

It's a serious offence.

A former career copper and seven years as an enviro-enforcer,

but John still can't understand why people fly-tip.

There is no excuse whatsoever.

We provide a domestic waste collection service to every resident

in the borough, including recycling,

and there is no excuse for illegal dumping of waste on the pavement.

We can't tolerate the sort of offence.

In Enfield, officers had managed to get a face-to-face meeting

with a waste collection company. They're interviewing two people

to find out if they know anything about serious fly-tips

that have been taking place across the borough.

The people from the waste collection company came to this house,

but instead they've been met by the enviro-enforcers.

You don't have to say anything,

but it may harm your defence if you do not mention, when questioned,

something you later rely on in court.

Their details and those of their van have now been taken,

and all the necessary checks can begin.

With the first interview under way, this person says all they do is

answer the phone and take details of where to collect rubbish from.

Hence the reason, that's why our conversation took place, OK.

This waste here was found there.

Amongst that waste there was evidence relating to an address.

The police are still checking the company's van.

Inside, the second person is now being interviewed.

The company has a waste carrier's licence,

but does this person have anything to say about the fly-tipping?

Do you recognise the fly-tipping here?

Do you recognise any of this waste?

Did you pick up any waste from Belgrave Gardens in Southgate?

Did you work for them to start with?

This person is claiming they've been working with a man

who got rid of some of waste when they couldn't fit it all in the van.

You'd pick up exactly what you could

and then get him to go round another time and pick up the waste?

So sometimes you would pick up the waste.

When you passed the waste on to him at any time, did you ask him

where he was going to take it, or how he was going to dispose of it?

Do you know whether he was licensed,

did you check whether he had a carrier's licence?

It's an intriguing twist in the investigation for Dave.

This person says they know nothing about the illegal tips in Enfield,

but it could be a man he's worked with.

Dave's more detective work to do.

He's only got a first name, whether the first in this accurate.

We've only got a first name for the guy.

He's given us are at an address.

He says he can get his number if we need it,

which we're going to ask him to do, and we're just to search his van

and see if we've got anything else in there to help our investigation.

A final search of the van doesn't throw up any additional evidence.

We have an invoice in here that relates to what we've already...

we've got the front copy of one of them.

There's clearly more work needed on this case.

Our next step would be to trace this other individual

and look in to speaking to him and see whether or not

that leads us somewhere.

The decision will then be made as to whether we go for prosecution

for both, one, or whether there's no case,

lack of evidence and we couldn't proceed.

The Enfield officers didn't trace that other man,

and they couldn't prove who did the fly-tips.

The company wasn't properly documenting their waste collection

so were advised on the proper procedures.

They did have a waste carrier's licence,

so in the words of Enfield's enviro-enforcers,

they were getting it partly right.

Across the UK, enviro-enforcers are still hard at work

to make our country a greener, cleaner place to live.

Join us next time,

when we'll be hot on the heels of more filthy rotten scoundrels.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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