A gran who placed two small bags of clothes by an overflowing charity donation bank was told to pay a £400 fly-tipping fine or go to court.

Pauline Yarranton, 68, put jumpers and T-shirts next to the container in a car park by a Nisa supermarket in Stourport, Worcesterhire, in November.

The retired hairdresser said: ‘I thought it might help someone in need. The charity shops at the time were not taking things at the time, because they were full from lockdown.

‘I thought I would put them in the recycling bag and take them down to the recycling bank. This time, I couldn’t get my stuff into the bank. The door was wedged.

‘I thought I’d leave it in front of the bins like I have in the past. I didn’t think I was doing anything illegal.’

Two weeks later, she got a £400 fixed penalty. She said: ‘I was gobsmacked. I thought they had the wrong person. Then I saw my car registration.’

Pauline appealed and attended a meeting ‘under caution’ for 30 minutes at Wyre Forest district council offices.

She said: ‘It was like a court set-up. Everything was recorded. It was really worrying.

‘The interviewers had said it had been reported by the shop next door to the charity clothes drop.

‘At the end, I had three options — pay the fine, go to court or take a caution. I took the caution. It was very worrying. I still couldn’t believe it had gone this far.

‘The only thing I have had in the past is a car parking fine. It is not nice after 68 years to have a caution over me.’

A sticker has now been put on the bin, saying: ‘If the bank is full please take your property home.’

The council website warns: ‘Leaving items by recycling banks, closed recycling centres or charity shops are all flytipping.’

This isn’t the first time someone in the UK has been fined for leaving a bag of clothes outside a clothes bank.

Elena Middleton told Metro.co.uk how enforcement officers in east London tracked her down after finding her friend’s address on a label attached to the re-used Next package.

The part-time cleaner says she was told by an official that leaving the sealed, neatly-folded box overnight was the same as ‘spitting or throwing a cigarette on the floor’.

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