Bill Borrett

The new leader of Norfolk County Council chased a loaded pick-up truck down a country lane because he believed the two men inside were fly-tippers.

Bill Borrett set off in pursuit after seeing the truck stop near his farm in Hoe, close to Swanton Morley, before passing a pile of dumped debris and a similar but unloaded vehicle going in the opposite direction.

Kevin Mitchell, 54, of Durham Road, Necton, and his son, Neil Mitchell, 30, of Vienna Walk, Toftwood, were both cleared yesterday of fly-tipping after a trial before Norwich magistrates, who said they could not prove the vehicle the pair were driving was the same carrying the furniture and sofa outside Mr Borrett’s home on November 20, 2011.

Both had denied the charge.

Mr Borrett said he saw a Nissan pick-up truck carrying furniture and a sofa idling at a crossroads close his home at Manor Farm, and followed it when it set off along Worthing Road.

He said: “I thought ‘They don’t know where they are going and they have got a lot of old furniture on their car.

“That would suggest to me that they were off to tip it somewhere.”

When he passed the debris and the green truck driven by Kevin Mitchell, he stopped in the road to make a note of the registration number.

“The vehicle looked the same,” he said. “They were in the same remote rural area at the same time. I assumed that they were the same vehicle.”

Kevin Mitchell, a stockman, said he was driving in search of a tip he had visited years before, because his son was planning to get rid of a fish tank and a hedge, though they did not have the items with them on the day.

“We had nothing on the back of the truck,” he said. “We realised we were lost and going nowhere, so we turned to go home because we were having no success.”

Mr Mitchell also made a note of Mr Borrett’s car in his diary entry for that day, because he noticed that he and his son were “being watched”.

Neil Mitchell said the pair had got lost as they did not know the area, and had just turned back on themselves when they passed Mr Borrett.

Magistrates called Mr Borrett a “very credible” witness but said the corroborative evidence they required was lacking.