Vigilante hunts down 'fly-tipper' at his home before escorting him back to dump to clean up rubbish

A Vigilante from Wigan has hunted down an alleged fly-tipper at his home before escorting him back to the dump to clean up rubbish.

Stephen Pownall, a 67-year-old lorry driver, found mounds of waste, including a Toshiba cardboard box, other packaging, and black bin bags, scattered along Riding Lane in Ashton-in-Makerfield, Greater Manchester - a location known locally as a frequent dumping ground.

Using the address details carelessly left on one of the boxes, Mr Pownall traced the man to his home and demanded that he return to remove the waste.

Mr Pownall told the Daily Mail: "He was pretty surprised to say the least when he turned up. But he couldn't really defend himself as he knew he was in the wrong."

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The confrontation was captured on video and shared on TikTok, showing Mr Pownall following an Audi Q7 back to the dumping site.

In the footage, he can be heard telling the man the behaviour was "not acceptable" and ordering him to remove everything.

Mr Pownall says in the clip: "Get it shifted. All of it. We don't do that around here."

The man acknowledged his wrongdoing on camera, he said: "I did wrong, I know I did wrong."

A Wigan Council official also appears in the footage, cautioning the individual that he faced a potential £1,000 fine or even imprisonment for the illegal dumping.

This latest incident, recorded in April, marks the third time this year that Mr Pownall has tracked down and confronted someone dumping waste illegally.

He told the Daily Mail: "I've caught three people doing it this year alone. But I've tracked them down and then made them take it back."

The Wigan resident has also taken to installing cameras at locations notorious for fly-tipping to catch offenders.

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Among his previous catches, one individual was found abandoning 500 tyres on land belonging to a friend of Mr Pownall.

Others have left behind two large leather sofas, a garage door and a trailer packed with rubbish.

Mr Pownall's vigilante efforts come against the backdrop of soaring levels of illegal dumping across England.

According to the latest Defra statistics, local authorities recorded 1.26 million fly-tipping incidents during 2024/25, a nine per cent increase on the previous year.

Approximately 38 million tonnes of waste are illegally dumped each year, equivalent to filling Wembley Stadium 35 times over.

Household waste accounted for 62 per cent of incidents, with roads and pavements being the most common locations at 37 per cent.

Despite councils undertaking 572,000 enforcement actions in 2024/25, only 69,000 fixed penalty notices were issued and court fines dropped to just 1,250.

Organised crime syndicates have increasingly moved into illegal waste disposal, with a former Environment Agency chief describing the £1billion-a-year racket as "the new narcotics".

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