A 28-week suspended sentence, 150 hours of unpaid work and £1,500 to pay for dumping waste in Redmans Lane near Shoreham. An invoice left in the pile caught him.
A man who dumped commercial waste in Redmans Lane, near Shoreham, has been given a 28-week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months. (Sevenoaks District Council, Fly-tipper prosecuted, 3 September 2026)
Mircea Mamai, 45, from Erith, pleaded guilty to fly-tipping offences at Sevenoaks Magistrates’ Court on Friday 28 August 2026. He was also ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and to pay compensation and costs totalling £1,500 to two councils.
The council describes the dumped material as commercial and potentially dangerous waste. The prosecution followed a joint investigation by Sevenoaks District Council and Gravesham Borough Council.
Caught by an invoice in his own rubbish
The waste was tipped in February 2024 at Redmans Lane, close to Castle Farm. The council’s Environmental Enforcement Team searched the pile and found an invoice for a scrap metal company. The invoice carried a vehicle registration number, and the vehicle was registered to Mr Mamai.
That gave investigators a lead they could check. ANPR cameras had recorded the vehicle close to the site on the night before the waste was found.
Gravesham Borough Council then found evidence that Mr Mamai had also fly-tipped on the same night in Batts Road, Cobham. Both cases were prosecuted together.
Two years of missed hearings
The case took over two years to reach a conclusion. The council says Mr Mamai was summoned to court several times between 2024 and 2026 but did not attend his hearings.
When he was brought to court, he pleaded guilty to both cases of fly-tipping. The sentence was:
- 28 weeks in custody, suspended for 18 months
- 150 hours of unpaid work
- compensation and costs totalling £1,500, paid to both councils
Cllr Irene Roy, the district council’s Cabinet Member for Cleaner and Greener, credited the enforcement team’s work on the evidence. “This prosecution is a great result for our Environmental Enforcement team. They were able to trace the fly-tipped waste back to Mr Mamai by carefully going through the waste he dumped,” she said.
“Fly tipping is illegal, and we will not tolerate it in our District. I’d like to thank our partners at Kent County Council and Gravesham Borough Council for their support in this investigation.” (Sevenoaks District Council, Fly-tipper prosecuted)
What it means for residents
The dumping site sits close to Castle Farm, on a rural lane outside Shoreham. This case shows the council will pursue a prosecution for years when the evidence identifies a culprit, even when the defendant repeatedly fails to appear.
If you see fly-tipped waste in the district, report it at sevenoaks.gov.uk/flytipping or call 01732 227000. Do not go through the waste yourself.
The case is also a warning about handing rubbish to anyone unlicensed: householders whose waste ends up dumped can be traced through it, exactly as the invoice in this pile traced the tipper. Bulky and garden waste can go through the council’s own services; see our guide to Sevenoaks bin collections. Monthly figures for what police record across the district, including criminal damage, are in our Sevenoaks crime data guide.
Sources
- Sevenoaks District Council, Fly-tipper prosecuted, published 3 September 2026 (the guilty plea at Sevenoaks Magistrates’ Court on 28 August 2026, the February 2024 Redmans Lane and Batts Road incidents, the invoice and ANPR evidence, the missed hearings, the 28-week suspended sentence, 150 hours of unpaid work and £1,500 compensation and costs, and the quote from Cllr Irene Roy)
Image: Redmans Lane, by N Chadwick, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Redmans_Lane_-geograph.org.uk-_7015295.jpg. The photo shows the lane, not the fly-tipped waste. Graphic by Sevenoaks Online.
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