A council has rejected the appeal of a mother who was fined £500 for leaving a free cabinet outside her house for neighbours to take.
Isabelle Pepin, 42, placed the white piece of furniture from Ikea in front of her house in Southbourne, Bournemouth, in August.
However, three weeks later she was given the fly-tipping fine by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council because she had put it on the pavement.
The Liberal Democrat-run authority told her that she was only allowed to leave items for members of the public to take if they were on her own property.
“We’ve been doing this for about 12 years and we’ve never had any indication that it was illegal,” she said.
Now the mother-of-one has been told that her appeal against the fine has been rejected.
“I do feel this is an excessive fine,” she said. “There was no intention of fly-tipping. It was outside my own house.”
Ms Pepin said the council should be focusing on people intentionally dumping items on “country lanes”, rather than fining residents who leave objects outside their own homes.
“I feel like the council are trying to make quick money out of easy targets,” she added.
Ms Pepin said she was taking legal advice about contesting the fine in court.
The council said the cabinet had been left on the road for four days, had no sign indicating it was free to take and would not have been suitable for a “freecycle” due to its “condition”.
However, Ms Pepin disagreed, claiming there was “still life left in it”.
Kieron Wilson, the authority’s portfolio holder for housing and regulatory services, said fly-tipping was a major issue in the area.
“If you leave waste on land that isn’t yours, you risk a heavy fine,” he said.
“We encourage anyone who wants to leave items still in good condition for others to pick up and reuse, to do so on their own property.”
Bournemouth council increased fines for fly-tipping in April 2023 to a maximum of £1,000, in line with government regulations.
Since then 73 people, including 15 in August, have been fined for fly-tipping.
A carpet fitter from the town was also fined £500 for leaving an off-cut outside his home for somebody else to take.
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