Fly-tipping furniture company caught thanks to dumped pizza receipt

A furniture firm that fly-tipped two tons of rubbish was caught out when investigators found a £20 takeaway pizza receipt among the waste.

EMM Furniture Ltd left the enormous waste piles on the grounds of Royal Blackburn Hospital, Lancashire, in April last year, prompting council chiefs to launch an investigation.

Photos taken at the site show large see-through bin bags full of commercial rubbish, pieces of wood, and other waste chucked into surrounding shrubbery and hanging from trees.

Enquiries were opened after Blackburn with Darwen Council officers received an anonymous tip-off from a member of the public along with a picture of two people fly-tipping waste from a van.

During the investigation, officers found a £20 takeaway pizza receipt, with an address which was later revealed to belong to EMM Furniture.

The order included an 18-inch Asian Special Pizza (£12.99), one large chips (£1.99), two tubs of garlic sauce (80p), and a Coke bottle (£2.70), with a £2 delivery fee.

Once the meal deal discount was taken into account, the order came to £20.

Following the discovery, officers visited the address and found waste bags which matched those left at the site and the van used in the offense at its premises.

Burnley Magistrates’ Court ordered EMM Furniture, based in Ruskin Street, Burnley, to pay a £20,000 fine, £539 in council costs, and £354 in compensation for clearing the waste following a hearing on July 24 earlier this year.

A Blackburn with Darwen Council spokesperson said: ‘This case shows that fly-tippers can and will be identified, no matter how hard they try to cover their tracks.

‘A huge thank you to everyone involved in this investigation, especially the member of the public who reported the incident and our partners at Burnley Council.’