received a litter offence letter

camz09

I am beyond livid and confused about this letter I received today. It accused me of committing a Litter Offence 3(1) in Kylemore Way (A PLACE I'VE NEVER EVEN HEARD ABOUT BEFORE TODAY!) ie, depositing a refuse bag creating a litter in a public place. Now the letter asks me to pay the fine of 150 euros. At first I thought it was some scam given how unbelievable it is for me to do this much less be where the offence was allegedly committed. I don't even drive or get out of the house much. Rang the Council but was only told to appeal in writing. Has anybody got any experience regarding this letter? Any advice on what to include in the appeal letter? Do appeals actually work or pretty much futile? What evidence do they have of this? It actually creeps me out how they knew my name and address and make up this incredulous litter offence I allegedly committed!

TherapyBoy

Sounds like they maybe found something with your name & address on it in a bag of rubbish at an illegal dump site. Ask if they can tell you exactly what was found & contact whoever disposes of your waste for you.

seamus

As TherapyBoy mentions, chances are a bag of rubbish was found there and inside it was something containing your name and address.

Certain groups of people are not unknown to be paid to dispose of rubbish and fail to dispose of it legally. They are also known to occasionally raid trucks or bins in the hopes of finding something of value and then dump the bags in a field.

If you can provide receipts, etc of bin tags or whatever to prove that you pay a company to dispose of your rubbish, then the issue is more-or-less out of your hands.

shanered

Just appeal, you should let off, its a joke all the same and a pain in the arse.
Ask what was found with your details and find out how it got there if possible..

camz09

Appreciate the advice guys. Now, how to write an appeal letter?! I'm not familiar with these things. I assume I just lay out the reasons how this cannot be made by me and include a request to be provided evidence? Do I include that in the letter? Also, the letter has the 9th of May as the date of notice but I only received it today (21st) so the 21-day window is now shortened. Ugh, the hassle!

shanered

There is a form to be filled out, here's the link:

http://www.dublincity.ie/WATERWASTEENVIRONMENT/WASTE/LITTER/Pages/Litter.aspx

camz09

Oops, only read your post now. Have already contacted them and got acknowledgment that they received my appeal letter. They will get back to me with a response in the coming days by post. We'll see.

shanered

Let me know, will be interesting what they say

the culture of deference

This happened my mother.

She was getting out of the car on a very windy day, a bill got blown out of the car.

camz09

UPDATE: Received a letter yesterday to inform me they have cancelled the fine. So this basically took almost a month. Wrote the appeal letter stating my case, plus I attached our bin collection receipts. Then after a few weeks, received a call from a DCC officer and had to explain my case again. Was told he will decide on it in a couple of days. And there you go- got the letter in the post. Whew!

Little CuChulainn

camz09 wrote: »

UPDATE: Received a letter yesterday to inform me they have cancelled the fine. So this basically took almost a month. Wrote the appeal letter stating my case, plus I attached our bin collection receipts. Then after a few weeks, received a call from a DCC officer and had to explain my case again. Was told he will decide on it in a couple of days. And there you go- got the letter in the post. Whew!

Now you have to ask yourself how that bag of rubbish with your name and address in it came to be in Kylemore Way. Either your bin man is dodgy or someone has been going through your bins for personal info.