Drivers caught dumping rubbish on M6 forced to clean it up by police

In a recent – and very satisfying – example of karma, drivers who were seen dumping bags of rubbish on the M6 were caught and forced to clean it up by the police. 

The culprits were travelling northbound through Staffordshire when they decided to pull into a lay-by area designed to help motorists in the event of an emergency.

Two passengers were then captured on CCTV exiting the vehicle to dump black bin liners full of rubbish. 

They could be seen shaking out what appeared to be food litter and other bits of rubbish out onto the edge of the motorway before returning to their vehicle and driving away.

Highways England / YouTube

However, unbeknown to them, the full incident was seen by control room staff at Highways England who were watching them on CCTV.

The team quickly notified Central Motorway Police Group (CMPG), who immediately hit the road in an attempt to track the vehicle down.

The pair were intercepted by motorway police who gave them an escort for twenty miles back to the scene of their crime and made them clean up all the mess they had left.

Highways England / YouTube

PC Nick James, from CMPG, was one of the officers that dealt with the hapless offenders. 

He said: “We’re grateful to our colleagues at Highways England for their speedy notification of the incident and we quickly found the vehicle which was travelling on the M6. We were able to escort it back to the scene – roughly around a forty-mile round trip – so they could pick up their mess.

“The rubbish was mainly things like takeaway wrappings and plastic bottles which can be easily recycled or disposed of safely at home. We reminded the culprits that stopping on a motorway to drop rubbish off isn’t the smartest move, especially when they’re being watched on CCTV.”

Highways England’s senior network planner, Frank Bird, also said: “This was a blatant and reckless abuse of one of our designated emergency areas which are there to help people in the event of just that, an emergency.

“We watched the whole incident unfold on our CCTV system in our control room and then quickly passed it to the police who were able to stop the vehicle and escort them safely back to the emergency area to tidy up their mess.

“We continue to work closely with our police colleagues who enforce issues like this and we’d remind people to take their litter home and dispose of it safely.”

The culprits’ details will now be forwarded to Environmental Health officers for their information, so should any future incidents occur there will be a recorded history.