tracing someone from license plate number?

Anyuone know a simple way to do this?

sorry, not actually a bike related issue!

caught a van flytipping behind my flat on Sunday, called police..useless.

want to personally return his property to his garden.....

Anyone have any bright ideas?

Originally Posted by twotime

Anyuone know a simple way to do this?

Can't be done by a member of the public - sorry

Originally Posted by twotime

caught a van flytipping behind my flat on Sunday, called police..useless.

want to personally return his property to his garden.....

The police were useless because they are not the enforcement authority for this.

Flytipping is an offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (as well as other things like "Registration of Carriers" and "Duty of Care").

Best place as a first port of call will be your local Council, who's Environmental Protection Dept (the name may be different) will help as they have a statutory duty to enforce this. Look for their website and take it from there

Cheers Jabba,

I was under the impression it was a criminal offence?

generally have little faith in local council and rozzas so am inclined to sort myself if possible.

Originally Posted by twotime

I was under the impression it was a criminal offence?

It is.

Don't assume that just because the police don't enforce it is isn't.

Triable in a Magistrate's Court and upon summary conviction a fine of upto £5000 per offence may be imposed, or prison, or both.

Originally Posted by twotime

generally have little faith in local council and rozzas so am inclined to sort myself if possible.

As this sort of stuff is a statutory obligation, you'll find that the local authority is probably better at this than they are at more "policy" related stuff.

Fly-tipping is a straight offence and and there's no need to prove harm, detriment or nuisance and there's no subjective assessments to be made either. There's often something incriminating in the fly-tipped material to link the offence to the perp.

Give 'em a chance to sort it by due process. I'm assuming that in addition to the reg number you can give a description of the perp(s)?

yup, well... from a couple of hundred yards anyway.

Had thisproblem with a communal bin area when I lived in a flat. We got the number of a builder's truck which was leaving stuff behind and contacted the council. They actually did something (big up to Braintree DC) and even more impressively let us know what had happened (court, fine and costs).

Originally Posted by BigglesBird

Had thisproblem with a communal bin area when I lived in a flat. We got the number of a builder's truck which was leaving stuff behind and contacted the council. They actually did something (big up to Braintree DC) and even more impressively let us know what had happened (court, fine and costs).

blimey! i'm impressed... ok, will give the council a go. See what they can do

In my experience, local authorities will take firm action against anyone they catch - or can trace - fly-tipping. Serves the buggers right IMHO.

[Red ones]

Your EHO (employed by the local authority) will be very interested. Believe it or not they are usually on ly too keen to rummage through the rubbish to trace the source.

The source may not be the person who tipped (they may be an unscrupulous waste firm) however the source has a responibilty to ensure their rubbish is disposed of legaly and should be able to produce a waste transfer note etc blah blah blah.

In short the EHO will be interested in your call!

You can find out a little bit more data on the vehicle (so long as you have the full registration) at

https://www.rac.co.uk/myrac/vehicle_data_check

Though you do have to sign up (free) first of all.

You'll get some or all of the following: Manufacturer, Model, Body type,
Colour, Fuel type, Date manufactured, Number of previous owners,
Last owner change

Try it out on your own vehicles - pretty freaky how easy it is to get some extra info!

Also, if for example, the vehicle you wanted to find out about was involved in an alleged hit and run with you/your vehicle, the police would be obliged to chase it up then, and the paperwork that would come back would almost certainly list the owner... that happened to me (though in my case I really was run down by said, fleeing driver...) and the name let me find his address via 192.com (tend to have to pay to use that though...)
You could also contact DVLA direct, as the paperwork I received from the police had come from them.

I know the police are understaffed as it is, yet I don't think it's a waste of their time over something like this. Find someone who flytips and it'll probably lead to someone who does plenty other illegal stuff... it's a pity the police don't have the resources to chase up everything like this right from the start though, without needing to be given a prod...