The former director of Special Lahori Ice Bar Ltd has been ordered to pay more than £4,000 following an investigation into flytipping in south Manchester.
Mr Zaheer Ahmed, age 56, was the sole director of the company and initially pleaded not guilty to flytipping offences at a previous hearing on 18 May 2023, but changed his plea to guilty at the Magistrates Court Hearing on Friday 3 November 2023.
As the director of the company at the time of the fly-tipping incidents, Mr Ahmed was found guilty of fly-tipping waste on Hibbert Street in Rusholme and will now have to pay £2,700 in fines, court costs of £1,146.24 and a victims of crime surcharge of £190,
In total he will have to pay £4,036.24 – prosecuted under section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
The company Special Lahori Ice Bar Ltd has since dissolved but proceedings were brought against Mr Ahmed as director of the company at the time of the offences.
An investigation undertaken by Biffa operatives on behalf of the Council found dumped waste on a number of occasions between 14 April 2022 and 6 May 2022. Such was the quantity of the waste that it frequently blocked the adjacent footpath.
On each occasion, officers inspecting the waste found evidence addressed to Mr Ahmed and his business ‘Special Lahori Ice Bar’, a café and takeaway based at 84 Wilmslow Road, Rusholme.
Takeaway cups, food wrappings and receipts with branding linked to the company were also found within the waste.
The evidence was collated and referred to the Council’s Environmental Crimes Team.
Mr Ahmed attended an interview under caution in June 2022 as the director of Special Lahori Ice Bar Ltd. At the time of interview, the company was registered at 171 Barlow Road, Levenshulme.
During the interview, Mr Ahmed admitted that some waste had come from the business but claimed that it was closed for refurbishment between January and April, placing blame on delivery drivers or contractors working on the property.
Mr Ahmed then went on to blame the offences on new members of staff, suggesting they may not have been aware of the business’s waste disposal arrangements.
