Peterborough Labour councillor’s family ‘scammed by serial fly-tipper’

The party’s council group said the son of Cllr Mahboob Hussain had been “duped” into paying £100 to a trader he did not realise was a “serial fly-tipper”.

Labour insisted that Cllr Hussain was unaware that items including a fridge freezer had been dumped at Mallard Road business park in Bretton until the party carried out an internal investigation after the issue was raised by a Conservative councillor.

It said the member for Central ward has been shielding during the current crisis and that “fly-tipping was the last thing on his mind”.

Labour has also released a statement from Cllr Hussain’s eldest son Haroon, who said: “The scammer’s pitch seemed plausible because the household recycling site in Peterborough had recently re-opened.

“The scammer said he had just done a collection for someone in Bretton and had some space left to take away household items for cash.”

The items were later discovered by Eve Taylor close to her cosmetics business on the morning of Monday, May 18. The fly-tip allegedly contained personal information linking it to Cllr Hussain.

A political row was then sparked after Conservative councillor for Bretton, Chris Burbage, posted on Facebook: “Such a shame to see this kind of mess dumped in Bretton. Evidence has been recovered along with evidence linking it to the house of a current serving Labour councillor!!”

Conservative MP for Peterborough Paul Bristow also posted photos of the fly-tip, including one which showed a flyer in support of former Labour MP Lisa Forbes. He told the Peterborough Telegraph last week: “As I understand, the fly-tip contains correspondence from a Labour councillor. Perhaps they or the Labour group could organise a clean up to prevent the owner being landed with a bill.”

However, he was criticised on Twitter by his predecessor Ms Forbes, who told him: “One of your councillors has made a serious allegation against a Labour councillor for what appears to be political gain. I have advised (they) should contact the police to investigate. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

The PT was unable to contact Cllr Hussain before publishing its article last week so decided not to name him in the story.

Labour said Haroon, who has recently returned from university, “thought he was doing his dad a favour and paid for the removal from his own pocket whilst failing to tell him what he had agreed”.

Once the matter came to light, the party said it began an internal investigation into the fly-tip and that “Cllr Hussain realised some of it was his rubbish and reported the matter immediately to Labour group leader Shaz Nawaz”.

It said that Haroon and his brothers have now cleared the site of the waste and returned it to the family’s garage and will have it cleared in a skip, adding: “There has been no attempt to hide the facts and Mahboob responded to the internal investigation as soon as he realised what had happened to his own household waste.”

Under rules which began in April, residents in Peterborough can be fined up to £400 for “breaching their duty of care” when disposing of their household waste.

This includes people who “failed to take reasonable steps to ensure that they transferred the waste to an authorised person”.

Labour also said it wanted to raise awareness of the scam having heard of further people in Bretton being targeted in the same manner as Cllr Hussain’s family.

Peterborough City Council began investigating the fly-tip last week. A spokesperson said on Tuesday: “We are currently looking into this and are in the process of speaking to all parties concerned.”

Row between Conservatives and Labour

The row between the Conservatives and Labour has continued over the fly-tip.

Cllr Nawaz said: “We have seen the best and worst of social media during this incident. It upsets me to think that a local Conservative councillor and, even worse, Paul Bristow, Peterborough’s MP, took to social media for what appears to be political gain rather than deal with the matter at hand for residents.

“A call from Cllr Burbage to Cllr Hussain, using the council’s established protocol for keeping councillors informed of what is happening in the local area, could have avoided this whole business and the matter would have been dealt with earlier.

“Would Cllr Burbage have done the same if it were a Conservative councillor? No, because he would call them, so he should have extended those good manners to Cllr Hussain.”

Responding to the comments, Cllr Burbage said: “I said in the original article in the Peterborough Telegraph that I was sure that the case was that the councillor in question has undoubtedly been the victim of a rogue trader and that I wished to highlight how easy is to be taken in by this kind of unscrupulous practice.

“To his credit, Cllr Hussain and his family have organised the removal of the fly tip, something I and the local business are very thankful to him for.

“In response to Cllr Nawaz questioning whether I would call out a Conservative councillor had the circumstances be different, let me say this, I put Bretton at the heart of everything I do as a councillor.

“Fly-tipping is abhorrent and I will always call those responsible out if I find them, regardless of party or political colours. The question is would a Labour councillor do the same?”

Meanwhile, Mr Bristow has also criticised Ms Forbes for comments she has made about Cllr Burbage.

He said: “After days of denial and accusations of a stitch-up, the truth emerges.

“Labour aren’t used to clearing up their own mess. The proof is trespassing on private land in the dead of night. At least Cllr Hussain’s rubbish has gone.

“We still need to hear from him. There are plenty of unanswered questions, not least why it took Labour so long to admit what happened.

“We also need to hear from Lisa Forbes. It’s not acceptable for a former Labour MP to threaten Cllr Burbage with police action simply for doing his job. Saying ‘he will deserve what is coming to him’ was appalling.

“She paraded Labour’s claims to be tough on fly-tipping. Now the truth is out, she should take a good look at herself.”

Ms Forbes said: “I responded on social media to what looked like a photograph staged to discredit me and the Labour Party over a fly-tipping incident in Bretton ward. My reaction has since been proved wrong and I apologise to Chris Burbage.

“It later transpired that this fly-tipping contained rubbish from many Peterborough residents, including that of Cllr Mahboob Hussain, who has been confined to his home due to Covid-19. They have all been victims of a rogue trader.

“As soon as Cllr Hussain found out he had been duped he paid out of his own pocket to have this fly-tipping cleared and is arranging for it to be properly disposed of.

“Cllr Hussain will fully co-operate with any investigation to find the culprit.

“I would urge local people to be vigilant and very wary of doorstep callers who offer rubbish disposal services.

“Fly-tipping has been a major problem right across Peterborough for many years now and one that the Conservative-run city council have failed to get to grips with.”