Moment shameless criminals dump mountain of waste outside business in England's fly-tipping capital

By WILL HALLOWELL, NEWS REPORTER Published: 11:16, 18 May 2026 | Updated: 11:23, 18 May 2026 This is the shocking moment a truck dumped a huge pile of waste outside a business in England's fly-tipping capital. CCTV footage captures dozens of bags filled with garden waste, concrete, rubble, and other construction materials being left outside the Hydro Bros store in Croydon, south London, on Sunday.  Steve Wong, 46, who owns the garden equipment company, said he was left in shock when he saw the mountain of rubbish on CCTV. The waste had been dumped at around 2.15pm but staff hadn't realised until they checked the cameras hours later at around 7:30pm. Mr Wong said he had to pay a company £1,500 to remove the rubbish overnight so his business could open its doors on Monday morning. He said: 'I was just randomly checking the CCTV and I saw a whole load of sh*t. This guy just dumped it there. 'We were scrambling to get it sorted. It was smack bang in front of our shutters so we needed to get it gone so that we could still be operational on Monday morning. 'It shocked me. You always hear about people being robbed or something bad happening but you don't expect it to happen to you. Dozens of bags filled with garden waste, concrete, rubble, and other construction materials were dumped outside the store in Croydon, south London, on Sunday CCTV footage shows a man wearing all black getting out of the truck to open the back doors before lifting it to fly-tip the waste  Mr Wong described the company he paid £1,500 to clear the waste overnight as 'heroes' 'I was panicked about how late it was because we had to get it sorted ASAP to open again. Finding someone who could sort it out was a challenge. They were heroes.' CCTV footage shows a man wearing all black getting out of the truck to open the back doors before lifting it to dump all the contents outside the shutters. Mr Wong said that since the incident he has been asking around, and found out several other businesses on the development had experienced similar incidents. Croydon has been named as the fly-tipping capital of England after more than 50,000 incidents were reported in 2024-2025, according to Defra. Camden, in north London, followed in second with more than 36,000 cases.   It costs Croydon Council £1million a year to deal with fly-tipping, with residents saying that dumps often reappear within 24-hours of being removed. Graham Mitchell, 68, has submitted a staggering 18,000 fly tip reports through the local council's app. He said: 'I report every day and the average is around 45 to 46 fly-tips every day. It has been getting worse.  Footage captures huge blue bags filled with garden waste being dumped  Pictured is the aftermath: dozens of black bin bags filled with rubbish left by the truck driver 'It is very frustrating, this is where I live and most of us want clean streets.  'It is only a small minority that think they can get away with dumping waste, but it affects everybody. People see it on their streets and it becomes normalised.' Mr Wong, who started his company six years ago after leaving a finance job, said times have been hard and that this incident was the last thing he needed. Though the company he paid was able to remove enough of the waste in time for the shop to open, working until midnight, Mr Wong still had to fork out a big sum to get it gone. He said: 'It is expensive, but it is just another chapter of being a business owner. 'I wouldn't say business is going great. Any business in this economy is suffering. We are just getting hammered left, right and centre by new regulations. 'Now with the war going on there are also increases in fuel. We are just getting hit from every side so this is just another thing. 'We have just got to crack on and keep going. It is not a case of hoping we make a profit it is hoping that we are still in business.' A Croydon Council spokesperson said: 'We are aware of a reported fly-tipping incident at Progress Business Park, Progress Way, Croydon, and our Environmental Enforcement Team is making enquiries. 'Whilst we cannot comment directly on this specific incident due to ongoing enquiries, we take a zero-tolerance approach to fly tipping.  'Where there is sufficient evidence, we will take appropriate enforcement action, which may include pursuing prosecution. 'Fly tipping is a criminal offence and we encourage anyone with information that may assist the investigation to contact the Council quoting reference: 26/00799/NSTFLY.' 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