Published: Friday 20th December 2019 | 4.53pm
Cannock Chase Council has prosecuted a Walsall man after he was found collecting scrap metal within Cannock without a licence.
On 11 July Environmental Health Officers heard a familiar audio track replicating a bugle call that they knew to be used by rogue scrap metal collectors. The noise led them to Oxford Green in Rumer Hill where they found scrap metal being loaded into a white Ford Transit registration number GJ03 TNN.
The driver, Phillip Arthur May, was found to be using a loudspeaker fitted to the vehicle to advertise his trade. The Officers found that he held no licence to collect scrap metal within Cannock Chase District.
May, of Pugh Crescent in Walsall, pleaded guilty to carrying out business as a scrap metal dealer without a licence contrary to S.1 Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 and using a loudspeaker in a street contrary to S.1 Control of Pollution Act 1974. He was fined £208, ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £32 and costs of £85.
Councillor John Preece, Environment Portfolio Leader, said: “In recent years the Council has received complaints about loudspeaker noise from vehicles being used to collect scrap metal. In the past, some of our neighbourhoods have been blighted day-after-day by numerous vehicles doing this, and so this is a timely reminder that it is an offence and that the Council will take action.
“This man was coming into Cannock to collect scrap metal without a licence, which is unfair to those collectors who are licensed and operating in accordance with the law. As well as looking after our communities, by removing these people, we also support legitimate licensed traders to flourish.
“Where a person is convicted of a relevant offence, any Council that has issued that person with a scrap metal dealers licence may consider revoking it or refusing future applications.”
Photo: Vehicle used by offending scrap metal collector