'Man with a van' and employee fly-tipped waste dumping it across Drumchapel street in Glasgow

A director of a “man with a van” business and his employee have been fined for fly tipping.

Stuart Allison, 53, and cousin Thomas Hutton, 44, dumped a portion of household waste in Glasgow’s Drumchapel between May and August 2020.

A total of 17 tonnes of household waste was recovered from the Dalsetter Crescent site after it was set ablaze alongside 51 tonnes of tyres also dumped there.

The fire caused flight disruption at Glasgow Airport in July 2020. Allison and Hutton were not responsible for starting the blaze.

Clarke dumped the tyres in Drumchapel. SWNS via SWNSPolice Scotland

The portion of the household waste they were responsible for cost Glasgow city council £1,900 to clean up. The overall bill was £10,000.

Declan Clarke, 31, was jailed for 11 months last summer after admitting “large scale” fly tipping in the same area.

He also discarded a further 500 tyres at Gartloch Farm near Glasgow Fort shopping centre months after police raided his home for the earlier offence.

Clarke, also of Drumchapel, pled guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to depositing controlled waste on or in land otherwise than in accordance with a waste management licence.

Allison, of Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire, and Hutton, of Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, meantime admitted an identical charge.

The court heard that the Glasgow City Council Environmental Health visited the site in July 14 and found a quantity of tyres and household waste.

Items were seized which included names and addresses.

Police were visited the addresses and officers were told they had hired a “man with a van” on Facebook.

Customers paid money to Allison’s bank account or in cash to Hutton.

Removed items included sofa, bed, washing machine, dryer, television, dolls house and a hoover.

CCTV was used to catch offenders and the vehicles captured were traced back to Allison.

Allison was quizzed where he admitted being the director of four companies and used Facebook for advertising purposes.

He stated to officers that he hired Hutton for work and did not own a waste management licence.

Hutton meantime claimed he had recently been sacked and that he had “dumped waste in nearly every street with a dead end in Glasgow.”

Phone analysis displayed conversations regarding uplifting work including pricing and the logistics of disposing waste.

Some messages also showed that Allison knew Hutton was fly tipping the waste.

Alasdair Gillies, defending Allison, told the sentencing: “The company he runs has six full time employees and if put in custody that company would essentially no longer exist.

“This would put numerous employees at risk.

“The Crown acknowledges that they are not responsible for all the household waste and the clean-up cost £1,900.

“He acknowledges the deep remorse for being involved and he wishes to apologise – he has taken this on board that it is unacceptable and doesn’t want to repeat this again.”

Sheriff Paul Reid told the pair: “As far as this matter is concerned, I will deal with it without custody given the scale of the dumping.”

Allison was fined £750 and ordered to pay Glasgow City Council £1,900 in compensation.

Hutton meantime was fined £750.