Down in the dumps

HEAVY load . . . a similar industrial bin (right)

A BUSINESSMAN faces a bill of up to £6,500 after thieves stole a massive hired dumpster and tipped its contents into a nearby street.

Stuart Walker, managing director of Elite Lockers, in Daniel Street, Derker, hires giant industrial bins — measuring 23ft long and 8ft wide — to take waste from their manufacture of lockers and storage equipment to the tip.

He said he became aware of the theft only on Friday afternoon — when a council officer arrived to prosecute him for fly-tipping.

The 45-year-old now faces a bill of up to £5,000 to pay for the hired dumpster and £1,500 to clean up the rubbish. He said: “I arrived on Friday just before 7am, to find the gates open and no bin,

“I didn’t think it was strange because there is always a lot of activity on our site with wagons coming and going.

“I even joked during the day about the bin being stolen.

“It was only when the council officer visited in the afternoon telling me some of my rubbish had been found in near-by Cromford Street that I realised the lock on the gate was broken and someone had stolen the bin.”

The skip is a 30 cubic yard roll-on steel container which needs a specially-adapted wagon to move.

Mr Walker said the thieves will probably use the stolen dumpster, which is five times the size of a normal skip, rather than scrap it in for cash.

He said: “Scrap has a high value, but you can’t just take something that size to a yard.

“Plus they had the right equipment to take it away with them. I’m shocked that someone could steal something that big, the theft is a real nuisance for our business.”

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said they were investigating the theft, which happened between 8pm on Thursday and 7am on Friday. No arrests have been made.

An Oldham Council spokesman confirmed Mr Walker would not be prosecuted for fly-tipping but he would be charged for clearing up the tipped waste.

Oldham Council is appealing for witnesses to come forward and will prosecute the thieves for fly-tipping if they are found.

Anyone with information should call 0161-770 6644.