A group of fly-tippers who were caught on camera dumping rubbish on a motorway in Staffordshire, England, were escorted by police five miles back to their mess and forced to pick it all up.
Highways Agency CCTV operators spotted three men dumping the bags of trash on a grass verge between junctions 12 and 13, in Staffordshire, on March 28.
Central Motorway Police Group (CMPG) officers then intercepted the vehicle between junctions 14 and 15 and escorted the occupants back to the scene. The traffic police ordered the trio to clear up the piles of waste they dumped beside the M6 motorway.
Photos reveal the red-faced trio bending down to pick up their piles of rubbish by hand.
CMPG officers later posted on Twiter: “M6 J12 to J13 a eagle eyed @HighwaysWMIDS who was monitoring the CCTV cameras notice the occupants of a Passat dumping rubbish in a ERA bay.
“We intercepted the vehicle M6 J14 to J15 and escorted them back clear their rubbish up. Details passed to @EnvAgency.”
Highways England Network Operations Manager for the Midlands, James Hawkes, said: “We spotted this blatant and reckless abuse of one of our designated emergency areas on our CCTV system and quickly passed it to the police.
“We continue to work closely with our police colleagues who enforce issues like this. Emergency areas are there for just that, an emergency. They’re not there for people who fly-tip, which is highly irresponsible and illegal.”
Social media users praised the officers for delivering “instant karma” after images of the fly-tippers were shared online.
“Absolute class guess it wasn’t a clean getaway for them,” one person commented.
While another said, “Got everything they deserved, I hope they were fined as well.”
