A vigilante from Wigan tracked down an alleged fly-tipper at his home before making him return to the dumping site to clear up the rubbish.
Stephen Pownall, a 67-year-old lorry driver, discovered piles of waste dumped along Riding Lane in Ashton-in-Makerfield, Greater Manchester. The rubbish included a Toshiba cardboard box, packaging and black bin bags, in an area locals say is regularly used as an illegal dumping spot.
After spotting address details left on one of the boxes, Pownall tracked the man down and confronted him at his home, demanding he return and clean up the mess.
Pownall told the Daily Mail: “He was pretty shocked, to say the least, when I turned up. But he couldn’t really argue because he knew he’d done wrong.”
The confrontation was filmed and later shared on TikTok, showing Pownall following an Audi Q7 back to the dumping site.
In the footage, he tells the man his behaviour was “not acceptable” and orders him to clear everything away.
Pownall can be heard saying: “Get it shifted. All of it. We don’t do that around here.”
The man admitted he was in the wrong, saying on camera: “I did wrong, I know I did wrong.”
A Wigan Council official also appears in the video, warning the man he could face a £1,000 fine or even jail time for fly-tipping.
The incident, filmed in April, was the third time this year Pownall had tracked down someone accused of illegally dumping waste.
He told the Daily Mail: “I’ve caught three people doing it this year alone. I tracked them down and made them come back to sort it out.”
The Wigan resident has also started installing cameras at fly-tipping hotspots to catch offenders in the act.
In one previous case, he caught someone dumping 500 tyres on land owned by a friend.
Others have abandoned two large leather sofas, a garage door and even a trailer loaded with rubbish.
Pownall’s vigilante efforts come as illegal dumping continues to rise across England.
According to the latest statistics from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, local authorities recorded 1.26 million fly-tipping incidents in 2024/25 — up nine per cent from the previous year.
Around 38 million tonnes of waste are illegally dumped every year, enough to fill Wembley Stadium 35 times.
Household waste made up 62 per cent of incidents, while roads and pavements remained the most common dumping locations at 37 per cent.
Despite councils carrying out 572,000 enforcement actions in 2024/25, only 69,000 fixed penalty notices were issued, while court fines fell to just 1,250.
Organised crime groups have also become increasingly involved in illegal waste disposal, with a former Environment Agency chief describing the £1 billion-a-year trade as “the new narcotics.”
