A RESIDENT claims she was wrongly accused of flytipping after she handed some rubbish to her neighbour to store.

Maria Hammarton handed two bags of black rubbish to a neighbour as her bin was full.

Her neighbour agreed and put the rubbish in his own bin, but Mrs Hammarton was surprised to see some bags dumped in the nearby car park that afternoon.

The bags had not been taken by refuse collectors because they contained recyclables and junk mail, which Mrs Hammarton admits.

But she was shocked to receive a letter from the council saying she flytipped them.

She is disputing the claim, insisting she put the two bags in her neighbour’s bin.

Mrs Hammarton, of Hickory Avenue, Colchester, said: “I realised my wheelie bin was full and I had two black bags in my hand. My neighbour said he would put them in his bin and I said thank you and left.

“Then when I came home I realised someone had put the rubbish in the car park. I didn’t think anything of it.”

She said neighbours had allegedly seen bin men taking the two bags out of the bin after looking through and finding the recyclables and moving them to the car park.

Colchester Council said the bin men are instructed not to do this.

Mrs Hammarton later received a letter from a street warden, saying she needed to pay a £100 fine for dumping the bags.

She said: “Surely they could have just warned me to make sure I concentrate more on my recycling. I don’t see why I should be punished for something I didn’t do.” The St Helena Hospice volunteer said she was devastated about receiving the fine but has agreed to pay it.

She said: “If I have to find the money then I will find the money, but I just want to get my point across. I’m not a flytipper.”

A Colchester Council spokesman said: “We are not able to substantiate the alleged sequence of events that led to the resident’s waste being found dumped in a nearby car parking area, well away from her boundary.

“We can confirm, however, our waste operatives are instructed not to handle wheelie-bins with open lids, including examining their contentd, and zone wardens only issue fixed penalty notices for waste that has been dumped away from properties, as in this case.”