Wrongly Accused of Fly Tipping - Help!

joujou

You never know what some shmuck is thinking by pursuing this. It would not surprise me if someone thought they should set an example to get everyone to use the new collection point.

Guest101

So.... what happened?

morpheusfire

Guest101 wrote: »

So.... what happened?

Wow, that was long.

Just as most people expected, they tried to get after me for everything.

I'm really disappointed with them and quite pleased with myself.

If they wanted to discuss the evidence around the issue, then fine, but these guys tried to paint me as a villain for 25 minutes of a 48 minute interview before they even bothered getting to the issue, the wood pieces.

Initially they said they wanted to "Paint a picture" so they asked me my name and occupation as well as address, DOB etc.

After that the questions started:

Q: Do you know the day for rubbish collection?

A: Yes, and it changes if there is a Bank holiday.

Q: Do you know the recycling day for collection?

A: No

Q: What is the normal rubbish collection point?

A: I put my rubbish at the collection point shown in (my photo). This is where everyone puts their rubbish.

Q: Did you know the collection point has moved?

A: I'm not going to discuss that, that's not what we're here to discuss today.

Q: What rubbish do you normally put out?

A: Black bags and cardboard. This is normally collected and is shown on (my photo) alongside everyone else's rubbish.

Q: Do you put out recyclable waste?

A: I don't put out my recycling bin.

Q: That contradicts what you've just said, you said that you placed recyclable waste out.

A: I said I placed cardboard out at the normal collection point at the normal collection time and it is normally collected.

Q: These wooden things look like doors, don't you think?

A: Your guess is as good as mine.

Q: What's the thing you put on doors to make them move?

A: (Silence.)
Interviewer 2: Hinges.

Q: Do you agree that it looks like you would have placed the wood here alongside the cardboard boxes which you've shown you placed.

A: That's your opinion.

Q: I'm asking your opinion.

A: I'm not here to give opinions, I'm here to give facts. You have your opinion and I respect your right to it.

These sorts of 'trip-up' questions continued for a while. They then said it could be MONTHS before this case gets reviewed by a lawyer.

Shocking.

I'm glad I came prepared, was honest and thoughtful but frankly, if an innocent person like me wasn't confident and prepared, they should DEFINITELY go in with a lawyer.

These guys go on for ages. At 1 point I told them it had been 40 minutes since they started just as they were about to go into a hypothetical example. Their pettiness is matched only by their persistence and both of them are incredibly annoying and unnecessary.

They then stated that I may have insinuated that the matter was trivial, so I decided to give a sarcastic apology.

I offered to give my fingerprints and suggested they put a camera in the area.

I concluded by telling them that I wasn't going to accept anything, not a caution, or a letter of warning - at the point I mentioned I wasn't going to accept a warning letter the first interviewer's eyes bulged!

Really poor performance on the part of the council. To ask someone questions is fair enough, to attempt to frustrate them into incriminating themselves is absolutely ridiculous.

I haven't incriminated myself, but I may have wrongly done so had I not been prepared, on the ball and most of all, hadn't done anything wrong! They'll come back to me in a couple of months because councils are incompetent and take ages to do everything, but they haven't a leg to stand on.

Just want to say a quick thanks here to everyone who gave advice, these forums are great and I really appreciate it.

You'll see me posting much more regularly here!

Guest101

Sounds like they really were after blood, glad you didnt give in. Well done.

Let's hope they just reply saying NFA. IF they send a warning letter, return it to them saying not accepted. They may try it on.

morpheusfire

Guest101 wrote: »

Sounds like they really were after blood, glad you didnt give in. Well done.

Let's hope they just reply saying NFA. IF they send a warning letter, return it to them saying not accepted. They may try it on.

Whatever they send, it will take them months to send it. What a pile of absolute jobsworths.

Really feel my council tax money is being wasted.

Never mind, I'll just make sure to check all my boxes repeatedly in the future and ensure all correspondence is removed!

Guest101

Just by the way, you can possibly do a freedom of information request to the council to ask how many people they have interviewed regarding this. They probably wont give you any names, but they can certainly give you numbers: IE number of suspect, hours spent investigating etc etc etc. Then you could bring this up as a complaint about spending (not sure if its county council or city council that deal with this, probably varies. My guess would be county)

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Please, o not tell me that you have been interviewed under caution and, if you are innocent, not taken legal advise. It may seem all big etc, and bravado to do so, but be specially carefull.

When I was 'interviewed' some years back, I took professional advise, and it cost me in the region of £5,000. It saved me from being accused of something I did not do, but was all hearsay.

buttscratcher

Kudos to the OP for dealing with the interview so well- I can imagine I would fold like origami even if I was innocent!

Really scary stuff this actually. I mean, the year 2013 and citizens have to live in fear of being tricked into admitting to criminal offences by the very institution that is meant to be there to protect them- all over a cardboard box!

Guest101

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth wrote: »

Please, o not tell me that you have been interviewed under caution and, if you are innocent, not taken legal advise. It may seem all big etc, and bravado to do so, but be specially carefull.

When I was 'interviewed' some years back, I took professional advise, and it cost me in the region of £5,000. It saved me from being accused of something I did not do, but was all hearsay.

I understand what your saying and it's good advice, but it cost you 5k, if its hearsay, chances are you wouldnt have been convicted.

But you're right that legal advice should be seeked out

joujou

I think you dealt with it well -

I would have gotten inside and just ask one question:

1) Am I under arrest?
If yes I ask for the warrant, if no I just leave.