A STUDENT has been fined hundreds of pounds because her bin was full - and says she can't afford to pay.
Marta Stankiewicz was hit with the penalty by Stoke-on-Trent council who accused her of fly-tipping by leaving two cardboard boxes outside beside her bin.
The second-year student at Keele university says there was nothing else she could do, with no room left within the bin.
But she now faces a potential courtroom ordeal if refusing to pay the £400 fine.
The environmental science student, from Tunstall in Staffordshire, told the Stoke Sentinel how she put the two boxes next to her bin on Friday before a scheduled Monday collection.
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But the 45-year-old was reported for fly-tipping and fined the following day.
She said: "I was cleaning out the shed and there were these two cardboard boxes. They weren't big.
"I put them by the wall outside by the rear of the property.
"There wasn't any room for them in the bins so I just put them next to the bins.
"On the Saturday, someone called saying they had reported the rubbish - on the same day, I got a letter from the council saying I had been fly-tipping and I was being fined £400.
"The boxes were just placed next to the wall by the gate out in the back alleyway. I was about to dispose of them - for two cardboard boxes, it seems extreme."
And she now worries she will be unable to pay.
Marta, who lives on her own, added: "It is excessive. I have no income, only the student loan.
"I felt petrified. I was scared to answer the phone. The fine is really out of proportion.
"I understand dumping waste is a problem - if it was a sofa or a cupboard, I would understand. But it was just two cardboard boxes.
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"I had just put them next to the bin ready to collect. I just want to know why the penalty was so high - why don't they treat every case individually and adjust the fine? I am outraged."
Yet the local authority has refused to budge, while insisting fly-tipping penalties are set by the government.
Amjid Wazir, council cabinet member for the environment and enforcement, said: "Stoke-on-Trent City Council is taking a zero-tolerance approach to all fly-tipping cases.
"Residents are reminded to only present rubbish for collection on the morning of their collection day.
"Any rubbish left out and not at the collection point will be treated as fly-tipping and the perpetrator will be fined.
"In this case, the cardboard boxes could have been presented with the recycling collection and included in the appropriate bin."
Fly-tipping is believed to cost the country £1billion per year.
A quarter of all Brits are said to have called others out in public for littering - with beachgoers among the worst offenders.
Some 34m tons of junk are dumped on the streets each year, enough to fill Wembley Stadium 30 times over.
