Woman fined after dumping carpet out flat window

A woman who threw a carpet out of her flat window before it was abandoned under a tree has been fined for fly tipping.

Rebecca Balentine was identified as living at Lyndhurst Court in Wolverhampton when a nearby resident heard a "large bang" against their window as the carpet landed on the ground below.

CCTV showed a man and a woman arriving at the scene minutes later, picking up the jettisoned item, moving it to another spot within the grounds and leaving it under the tree, the city council said.

Baltentine later admitted dumping the carpet but said it was to be collected by the man seen in the footage. She pleaded guilty to one charge of depositing controlled waste at Dudley Magistrates' Court and was fined £120.

Photographs and footage of the carpet and gripper roads being moved were supplied to the council by a resident, the authority said.

Environmental crime officers began investigating the incident, which happened on 16 June last year.

After identifying Balentine as the occupant of the property on Birmingham New Road, she was given a fixed penalty notice.

After no money was paid despite an extension, officers said she would need to attend a police and criminal evidence (PACE) interview.

Balentine admitted dumping the carpet and rods but said she had put them there for the man seen in the CCTV to later move, however, it did not happen.

A further extension was offered to her to pay the fine, but no payment was received, the council said, and she appeared before magistrates on 25 June.

Councillor Qaiser Azeem, cabinet member for resident services, said: "There is no excuse for dumping waste and blighting the communities where people live.

"Residents have every right to expect clean, safe and well-maintained neighbourhoods."

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