‘Favour for friend’ lands truck driver with £2,400 bill

A man has been ordered to pay more than GBP2,000 for illegally transporting a friend’s rubbish as “a favour”. Shane Jestin-Cull was caught carrying garden waste, wood and fencing in a grabber truck on the Orbital Business Park in Ashford.

The driver was stopped on the Orbital Business Park in Ashford

Suspicious police officers had stopped him on February 2 and alerted Ashford Borough Council’s Environmental Crime Team, which sent staff to the scene. Jestin Cull presented officials with a waste transfer note, as well as an Environment Agency waste carriers licence in the name of a different man.

He claimed he was doing a favour for the licence holder.

Jestin-Cull was served with a Section 5 Notice, requiring him to produce his, or his employer’s authority to transport waste. He then said that he was in the process of applying for the appropriate licence.

Shane Jestin-Cull failed to attend Folkestone Magistrates’ Court

He was ordered to appear before Folkestone Magistrates on July 18, but failed to attend court. A lawyer for the council applied for the matter to be heard in his absence and, after considering the prosecution’s evidence, the district judge found Jestin-Cull guilty of two waste offences.

He was fined a total of GBP1,440 and ordered to pay council costs of GBP839, and a victim surcharge of GBP144.

He was given 28 days to pay.