A couple who “just wanted to clean up their street” were fined £1,200 by their local council for picking up “disgusting” litter outside their home.
Veronika Mike and Zoltan Pinter, 41, said the street outside their two-bedroom detached home had been full of rubbish for years, with people dumping it around designated bins which they said was not collected and which attracted rats.
To clean his street on April 29, Zoltan filled an old cardboard box with food scraps and placed it next to the garbage cans to prevent them from spreading, in the hope that the municipality would pick them up.
Zoltan said his name was on the cardboard box but instead of a thank you he received a fixed penalty notice and a £600 fine for illegal dumping a week later and to his horror Veronika received the same thing despite her name not being on the box.
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The couple, from Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, have sent a letter signed by several of their neighbours to the council, saying that Zoltan, who works as a mechanic, and Veronika, a freelance camerawoman, were not guilty of the crime and asking them to reconsider their decision.
Despite their efforts, Stoke-on-Trent Council remained steadfast in its decision to pay the £1,200 fine, which the couple paid in instalments, saying the matter had been “resolved”.
Zoltan and Veronika, who set up a GoFundMe account to try to get back some of the money they lost, said they would never clean their street again “even if the rats come”.
“We just wanted to clean our street and we got thanks from the municipality for that,” Veronika told PA Real Life.
“At first I was so angry and cried. I had volunteered before to pick up litter and basically did the same thing and got two £600 fines for nothing.”
The couple, who have lived at the same address for more than nine years, said they had been struggling with a waste problem for some time, with people leaving household waste, including food scraps and paper packaging, on the street outside their home.
“Everything was fine for the first few years, but then the streets became dirty,” Veronika said.
“The trash cans are in front of our main entrance, it’s disgusting.”
Garbage collection takes place every Wednesday morning, but the couple said they only empty the bins and do not pick up the rubbish around them. Over the years, the couple decided to clean the street themselves, sometimes with help from neighbours.
“Many people do not use their own bin, they put it on top of other people’s bins,” explains Zoltan.
The situation became so serious that Veronika saw rats, cats and seagulls wandering around the garbage.
“I’m afraid to pass it on the street because I’ve seen so many rats and what look like stray cats,” she said.
“They are attracted by the smell and tear the plastic bags,” Zoltan added.
“That’s why there’s so much garbage strewn around the bins.”
At the end of April, Zoltan returned home from work and after seeing the rubbish blowing in the wind, he decided to take matters into his own hands. Feeling like he was doing his best for the local community, Zoltan said he filled an old cardboard box with rubbish.
“We didn’t want to look at this for another week,” Veronika said.
He left the box next to the trash cans in the hope that the garbage collectors would collect it.
“I couldn’t put it in the trash cans because they were full, so I left it next to them,” he said.
A week later, on May 8, the couple were shocked to receive a fixed penalty notice demanding that Zoltan and Veronika pay £600 each for “failing to deliver household waste to a competent authority”.
“There was a lot of garbage around, but they don’t care, they just found a name on the box – Zoltan’s and charged us. It’s not fair,” said Veronika.
“They sent us both fixed tickets even though it was just my name on the box. This is very, very strange. I don’t understand why they sent Veronika a fixed ticket.”
They received a letter from Stoke-on-Trent City Regulatory Services Environmental Crime Unit showing a picture of Zoltan’s can. The letter said the pair had “failed to comply with their lawful duties” and added that “this is an offence under Section 34(ZA) of the Environment Protection Act 1990”.
While Zoltan was able to pay the fine straight away, Veronika cannot afford it as she does not have a “stable income” from her work as a videographer. She was put on a payment plan where she pays £100 a month for what she describes as cleaning the street.
The couple said they tried to appeal the council’s decision and contacted Citizens Advice but were told the law was “black and white”.
“Citizens Advice were really helpful and provided us with numbers where we could get legal advice,” Veronika said.
Zoltan even went to his neighbors and asked them to sign a letter confirming that they “never leave litter on the street” and for the municipality to reconsider its decision.
“We wrote a letter to the city and asked our neighbors to sign it, to show them that I’m not a dirty person, that I’m a clean person,” he said. “They all signed it right away because they all knew me.”
The couple said they would never have their streets cleaned again after their experience.
“We won’t do anything,” said Veronika. “Even if the rats come, we’re too afraid to do anything now.”
Councillor Amjid Wazir OBE, cabinet member for city pride, enforcement and sustainability, said: “This matter has been resolved and all liability has been removed.
“We would like to remind residents and businesses that illegal dumping of waste is an offence and those found doing so will be issued with a fixed penalty notice.”
To support Zoltan and Veronkia, click the link here.