A MUM has been slapped with a massive £400 fly-tipping fine – after her bins were filled with beer cans by selfish revellers.
Lilly Bence, 22, from Calne in Wiltshire, said passers-by have been dumping rubbish in her bin ever since she moved in.
She claimed her bins were left overflowing with cans and beer bottles after thousands of punters flocked to the town for a bike meet on July 28.
But Lilly was devastated when the council slapped her with a £400 fine for fly-tipping.
She said: "My bins have not been emptied by the council because they were full of other people's rubbish.
"They were full to the point that they were overflowing and the binmen wouldn't take them.
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"I do think it's unfair because it's not even my rubbish, some of it was mine but most wasn't.
The single mum added: "I think I should've been given a warning considering there was other people's alcohol in there.
"It's awful and really upsetting because I have a growing kid to buy for.
"My money goes like anything and now I have to find £400 when I'm not left with that much every month."
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The fine is thought to have come from Lilly leaving black waste bags next to her bin – which was full and had not been collected.
She now faces a September 11 deadline for the fine after her plea for a payment plan was denied.
Lilly has now taken a heap of waste to her local tip – as binmen still will not collect it.
Wiltshire Council said: "We take fly-tipping in Wiltshire seriously.
"However, as this is an ongoing case which we have been working with local residents to resolve, it would not to be appropriate to comment further at this stage."
Dropping litter could now land you a £500 fine – with on-the-spot penalities set to triple in an anti-social behaviour crackdown.
Fly-tipping: know the rules
Law Society expert Sebastian Charles said you could be slapped with a fine if someone fly-tips on your property.
Under Section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, if you become a victim of fly-tipping it is your responsibility to safely dispose of the rubbish – and pay for it.
This is because it is illegal to keep controlled waste on unauthorised land, even if it wasn't you who put it there.
Your council will normally take away the trash free of charge, although it has no legal obligation to do so.
But if you don't dispose of the waste properly, you could be fined up to £50,000 – or serve a jail sentence in some cases.
Sebastian, who chairs the Law Society's Planning and Environmental Law Committee, told The Sun: "The main waste offence is targeted at fly-tippers and makes depositing controlled waste an offence.
"However, innocent landowners can get caught out too because it is also an offence to 'keep' controlled waste on your land.
"So you might be a victim of fly-tipping but also commit an offence if you don’t clear away the waste fly-tipped by others.
"It isn’t the council’s job to clear away waste from private land.
"It might seem harsh but the reason is obvious – it is really difficult to catch criminal fly-tippers in the act and prove who deposited unlawful waste.
"If it was the council’s responsibility to clear up unlawful waste everywhere, criminals might dump waste on their own land, then claim it was dumped by someone else."
Sebastian recommends making sure that any gardeners or builders whom you hire take rubbish to a legitimate waste site, and taking steps to secure your property against fly-tippers.
He added: "Penalties for waste offences are harsh, but catching offenders, with evidence that will stand up in court, is not easy.
"Generally large companies that you have heard of are not the cause of the problem and pay large amounts in licence fees and inspections.
"The problem is that small operators often don’t have money to pay fines or prosecution costs, even when they are caught."
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