A SINGLE mother fined £500 for fly-tipping after leaving an Ikea cabinet outside her home for people to take for free has lost her appeal.

Isabelle Pepin is now thinking of taking her local council to court over the unfair treatment and extortionate fine.

The 42-year-old left the Ikea Trofast cabinet in front of her home along with a chest of drawers and a paper sign stating they were free.

While the chest of drawers was quickly claimed by someone, the cabinet had not been taken after four days.

(Image: BNPS)

But Miss Pepin was stunned when a council official knocked on her door and told her she was being fined for fly-tipping.

She appealed the fine stating she had no intention of fly-tipping but was just trying to do her bit for the environment and keep the cabinet out of landfill.

The mum-of-one from Bournemouth, Dorset, also said she had been recycling items in this way for 12 years without any problems and had no idea it was not allowed.

Miss Pepin has criticised BCP Council, who declared a climate emergency in 2019, for targeting homeowners instead of doing the work to catch real fly-tippers who anonymously dump waste in country lanes.

She said: "They did acknowledge that my intention wasn't to fly-tip but basically said because it was there for four days the appeal was rejected.

"I don't know why they have decided four days is the cut off, it seems a bit of an arbitrary number they have picked out.

"I'm very disappointed, I do feel it's pretty unfair.

"People in our community put stuff out all the time, I know people who planned their daily walks in lockdown around where people had put items out and treated it a bit like a car boot sale.

"I have put stuff out probably 20 times in the last 12 years and never had a complaint or a warning that I was doing anything wrong so to suddenly get hit with this big fine without warning was awful.

"I don't want the stress of going to court but I do feel quite strongly about this. We are all supposed to be recycling and looking after the environment and this seems so counter productive.

"The intention for me was never to put it out there as waste. If it wasn't going to be taken I would have disposed of it. I wouldn't have left it out more than a week and I did end up taking it to the dump myself.

"It was still useful and had life left in it. Someone could have used it in a kid's room or in a garage for tools. If you have the opportunity to reuse something I think you should.

"I think it's easy pickings for the council targeting people putting something outside their house, rather than actually finding the people who are fly tipping and dumping old mattresses and things down country lanes."

BCP Council said the item was dirty with no drawers and no sign on it for four days and therefore was deemed as waste and not suitable for a freecycle due to its condition.

Councillor Kieron Wilson, BCP Council’s portfolio holder for housing and regulatory services, said: "Flytipping is a major issue for residents, and we are determined to tackle it to make sure our streets are clean and pleasant places to live.  

"The clear definition of flytipping is illegally depositing waste on to land without a licence to do so. That means, if you leave waste on land that isn’t yours, you risk a heavy fine.

"We encourage anyone who wants to leave items still in good condition for others to pick up and re-use, to do so on their own property. Our contractors only issue fines for items left on the public land, such as the road or pavement."

The service is outsourced to a private company, Waste Investigations Support and Enforcement (WISE), who investigate offences and administer penalty notice on the council's behalf.