A woman who was fined after being caught red-handed dumping rubbish from her car has told people to "take a chill pill" after she tried to blame the pandemic for her actions.
Keighley Whyte had been caught on Manchester City Council CCTV as she parked up her Fiat Punto and dumped the rubbish next to the Etihad football stadium, on June 11, 2020.
The footage showed as the car stopped, two women got out of the car in order to dump rubbish onto the side of the road, and then drove off.
Biffa, the waste management company working on behalf of the council, visited the site the next day and found evidence from the dumped rubbish linking back to Whyte.
Further investigation then showed that the Fiat Punto used to fly-tip the rubbish was registered to Whyte.
Whyte failed to attend an initial court hearing for the offence, with a warrant being issued leading to her arrest.
The 27-year-old pleaded guilty to fly-tipping at a hearing at Manchester and Salford Magistrates Court on March 4.
Whyte, from the Clayton area of Manchester, later posted on social media trying to defend her actions, but was quickly criticised by others.
She wrote: "The tip was shut we was in the middle of the scamdemic I through [sic] a bit of cardboard with my name on and had to pay for 50 other peoples rubbish an all."
One person asked: "Why are you trying to justify breaking the law? Other people managed and didn't break the law.
"You were lucky with the £614 in fines, in some councils the fine could've been in the thousands and your Punto seized and crushed."
Another said: "Genuine question not hating on you, you clearly know what you did was wrong, but if it was just a cardboard box why didn't you just flatten it and either put it in a bin or keep it to one side until you could get rid of it?"
Whyte added: "It was 2 years ago and exaggerated massively," before adding: "Listen Karen I’ve not murdered anyone have your morning coffee and have a chill pill."
Councillor Rabnawaz Akbar, Manchester City Council's executive member for neighbourhoods, said: "This is an environmental crime that doesn't make sense on any level.
“Not only is it an unnecessary cost to the council, and hence the taxpayer, it was an expensive way for this woman to get rid of rubbish when she could have taken it for free to a local tip.
"Once again, we want to send a message to anyone who thinks they can get away with blighting our environment, we will not tolerate fly-tipping in the city, and we will continue to bring prosecutions to court to show that this behaviour is not acceptable in our city."
Whyte was ordered to pay a total of £614 for the offence.
