Store fined £300 for using wrong bin bags

Tag : Grey Clothes
A shop owner in Muswell Hill, London, has likened Haringey Councilto the Gestapo after being fined £300 by officers for using thewrong bin bags.

Sangita Ibrahim, 47, who owns designer clothes boutique Charli inMuswell Hill Broadway, said: "The shop was really busy and theycame bounding in like the Gestapo and said, 'We're investigating apossible crime.' I felt like I was going to be frog-marched away."

Commercial waste is collected by council contractors HaringeyEnterprise and has to be disposed of in official grey bin bags. ButMrs Ibrahim says she put it out in four black bags after anexpected delivery of official bags at the beginning of the monthhad failed to arrive despite calls to Haringey Enterprise askingfor more.


Photo from here.

Dora Panagi, who works in the shop, said: "We had none left and wehad to get rid of the rubbish as it was beginning to get smelly andwe've had problems with rats in the past. "We put the black bagsout amongst our last two council bags so they'd know they wereours, not just somebody dumping their rubbish amongst the businessrubbish."

Charli was fined £75 per black bag but Mrs Ibrahim wants toappeal. She also plans to lodge a complaint about the conduct ofthe officers, who she says confronted her in front of customerslast Thursday afternoon. She said: "I felt really intimidated bythem. It was really unprofessional of them to confront me in frontof customers. They were obviously on a power trip - they were justso rude.

"Some of the customers told me they were shocked at the way I hadbeen spoken to, as though I was a criminal. They actually said I could get a criminal record just for using the wrong bin bags."