3GS Environmental Enforcement Reviews 172

If I could give less I would. A moment's lapse in concentration & I was pounced upon by 2 males, shouting after me, they proceeded to caution me as they said i had broken the law, they then said I had to give them my address & personal details, I was uncomfortable, abit in shock & completely unsure what to do, I told them I didn't want to give my information as I didn't know who they were, to this I was informed I was breaking the law again & they were phoning the police, I felt things were out of my hands & gave my details even though I did not want to, I felt pressured & bullied by 2 men in broad daylight.
This morning I have spoken to this company & apparently these men did nothing wrong, so now it's acceptable to treat people this way!! I accept I did something wrong but £150 for dropping a cigarette is absolutely astronomical!!! I also informed this company I did not have this amount of money & would need to pay instalments, No if I don't pay it all in one go they will take me to court

Fined £120 for feeding the pigeons the last bit of my burger bun, because they said it was littering, even though the birds had eaten every last scrap and I still had the wrappers onions and napkins still in my hand ready to put in the bin. Deliberately intimating a lone woman with two burly officers in Piccadilly Gardens Manchester. If they had been watching the whole time I was sat there they would of seen me pick up the 2 napkins I dropped on the floor and which were caught by the wind. I'm no litterer . FUMING

I am a 72 year old pensioner. I was waiting for a bus on Oxford Road Manchester yesterday. When I pulled my mask out of my pocket in preparation for getting on the bus, a tissue must have caught on it and dropped to the ground. Two enforcement officers from 3GS, accused me of littering. I wasn't even aware of it being on the ground until they pointed it out to me. While one ignored my explanation and began filling out the caution for a £150 fine, the other said that he had witnessed me drop it deliberately. This is totally untrue. It seems the only way I can challenge this is to refuse to pay and be taken to court risking a criminal conviction, and I can't face the sleepless nights involved so I will just have to pay up. I have never been in trouble with the police, and am opposed to littering, having on occasions incurred the wrath of litterers by telling them off myself. Presumably the couple of officers needed to meet their targets, for the day. This organisation knows it can operate with impunity. It is a disgrace.I ticked one star because it's impossible to leave none.
The 3gs case reference for this is MR139M3H01M13.

The fine for throw cigarette 150£ its robing ..who gonna paid this amount never gonna care about rule. .council should warn the people and give chance awareness about the lt...this kind of punishment not helpful for us.thanks

Stopped for putting a cigarette in a Cup on to of a bin.
Enter Agent 1.. Issues me a fine for the cigarette and advises it will be £60.. As ticket 1 is produced Agent 2 arrives.. He fines me for the cup which they both agreed was not mine??? Told that I could appeal but he had to issue the ticket as I had further contributed to the litter?.. Got back to my desk to find both tickets had been issued at £150 each.. £300 :-( This is clearly a revenue earning operation led by commission.. See you in court 3GS.

Absolute w*nkers. Tried fining me for dropping a cig butt in Bristol city centre, wouldn't let me pick it up. Was hidden and then approached me after I had walked away and went into a shop with the mrs. When asked about why they didn't stop me sooner, gave a pitiful non committal answer . Should have just legged it. If they catch you just walk away or say in another language you don't speak English, trust me, problem solved :)

The only way to get a response from this despicable Company and the Councils that use them is to write to your MP. They will ignore anything from an individual as they know we have no power nor the financial means to challenge them.

For those in Waltham Forest who have suffered at the hands of 3GS, write to Sir Iain Duncan Smith. I have done so, and he will challenge the Council on your behalf. They will not ignore him. The more fuss we make, the more things will change.

Alternatively, you can write/email to the following:

Martin Esom, Chief Executive

Michele Moloney, Strategic Director Resident Services

Jariath Griffin, Director of Neighbourhoods

All Waltham Forest email addresses are @waltham forest.gov.uk preceded by their name i.e. martin.esom

Postal address is:
London Borough of Waltham Forest
Waltham Forest Town Hall
Forest Road E17 4JF

James Cracknell of the Waltham Forest Echo did a piece, 11 March 2020, when Waltham Forest used Kingdom Services Group and racked in £1.5 million in 3 years. Under 3GS the situation is much, much worse, £2.04 million in 2021 alone. We are being robbed by 3GS and the Council.

The more publicity we can give to this abuse the more something will happen.

Tried to fine me but they couldn’t hahahah! Get a new job guys, if I see you working for these u must a desperate guy

Scum. Absolute scum.

Typical government owned greedy b@£!£!!ds.

if you are stopped by these scum jus carry on walking dont liase with them dont speak or give them any details if they threaten to call the police ignore them as the cops will just laugh at them if your in a shopping area walk int to a shop with different entrances,exits and goo out that way

Vile scum - get these scum off our streets - vile company FYI they’re not just doing a job they are thieving scum with no morales - any normal minded individual wouldn’t work for an unethical company such as this. Enjoy my £65 scum

I volunteered to drive a friend of mine from Gloucester to do some Christmas shopping at Cabot Circus in Bristol.
After the long drive I was hankering for a cigarette as my anxiety had been raised through driving and the intended shopping experience.
Precisely 23 minutes after parking the car at Cabot circus and extinguishing a cigarette in what I presumed was an ashtray in a concrete block, I was approached by 3 asian officers who asked to speak with me. They guided me away from my friend without social distancing and I felt compelled to do as it felt quite intimidating.
One stood at arm’s length in front of me and the other two others either side of me who seemed rather close for comfort.
He identified himself as EO 150 and informed me that they had witnessed me committing an offence of littering contrary to section 87 (1 and 5) of the environment protection act.
I informed him that I had assumed it was an ashtray as it looked like one and others had extinguished cigarettes in it.
He told me that it wasn’t and that I should have put in a bin which I honestly had not noticed as they blend in well with the aesthetics of the town. Politely, I explained the situation and I offered to return to the ashtray to recover it to put in the bin however, he informed me that I had already committed the offence and that they were going to issue me with a fine of £65 if I paid it within 10 days then demanded my ID.
I asked him what would happen if I refused to identify myself to which he replied that I would be arrested and my fine would increase to £1000.
Under threat of arrest, I gave him my details.
I was calm at all times despite me feeling intimidated by 3 Asian/indian officers surrounding me and my anxiety going through the roof.
I was given the ticket and they walked away to hang around the area for any other unsuspecting visitor to make the same mistake as I did.
Quite frankly I was so shook up by the incident that I had to sit down and have a hot drink to calm myself down.
I could not sleep last night due to the hostile environment you have created when it comes to people who suffer from an addiction to smoking. Welcome to Bristol.
Upon reflection I investigated the company and I have also called Bristol city council (who was quite shocked to hear of my view of the incident). I have also asked them to cover these “lookalike ashtrays” with a plate or cap of some sort. Not just to prevent people from mistaking them as ashtrays but to prevent your officers using them to “entrap” unsuspecting victims. (and yes I consider it as entrapment and consider myself as a victim)
I complained in writing and attached a picture of what I assumed to be an ashtray on a concrete block.
I did not, and would not carelessly, intentionally or maliciously dispose of my cigarette onto the floor or the street.

Having said that, I wrote to ask them to answer a few questions for me?

1. Why didn’t the officer approach me whilst I was stood smoking by the concrete block and pre-warn me that they are not ashtrays and point me to a bin when I had finished my cigarette?
2. Why didn’t he give me the opportunity (as requested) to revisit the ashtray and remove it to correct my mistake and let me off with a warning?
3. I knew from my investigation that are self-financing however, their officers are not allowed any discretion to be “proactive”, it is their goal to film and fine everyone for committing a minor offence that could be a genuine mistake of miss-identifying a place to extinguish a cigarette.
4. I asked them if they put profits over fairness.
5. I also asked them how many victims they had caught making this mistake at this location over the last year. (Yes this was a freedom of information request)
6. I aslo asked that if I challenged this, would they hold the fine amount at £65 or will I be punished further after 10 days when the fine increases to £100?

I asked if they would take the opportunity to view the footage from their three officers and judge for themselves to see if this was unreasonable, overzealous, entrapment, intimidating or just plain bullying.
Have to say that they have you by the short and curlies because they did not investigate it, Neither did Bristol city council although they have promissed to look at the blocks with ashtrays in them. They will not review 3GS contract.

We were issued fixed penalty notice,
We live in a flat above a shop and should put rubbish on the kerb mon wed and Friday. On the day a Friday we put rubbish out between 6-9 am. Council didn’t collect until 2046 they came and took picture and issue a fine penalty notice to the sun if £400 3GS we argued this but they don’t care. How can a council be so heartless we have cctv footage of the time rubbish was put out and time enforcement officers took pictures

Waltham Forest started employimg these legalised robbers in April 2021. FPN of £150 for giving the birds a piece of crust from a sandwich on a green ! Nice money maker for the council. LIED about apoealing the fine, you can't!! Ironically I was surrounded by plastic discarded garbage, maybe they thought I was a tourist.

We received fixed penalty £400 for one green recycling bags that we put on collection spot about 10 hours early before our waste collection. ( Waltham Forest Council)

We haven’t bins so we must prepare our waste bags to pavement in front our flat for waste collection every Monday, Wednesday and Friday 6 am. If you are not able to put your rubbish bag there in right time 6am, there is not collection for you. If you prepare rubbish bags early than you facing £400 penalty. It’s SICK. We went guilty and we was expecting warning. We was wrong, none warning. No one want to talk about it with you. They don’t listen. They want your money’s only. Maximum penalty issued, none mercy.

I just fined with 400 pounds for absolute no reason!they took photos of my waste including an envelope with my name on it at Wednesday 20.37 and at a different spot while i left my waste at 06.30 in the morning! I was shocked because i was innocent!im not gonna pay a penny until they gonna show me on cameras that i left the bag in this spot on this time.

What a bunch of horrible nasty people they should be ashamed of there selfs maybe it’s best to prevent rather then watch the act the following you Around like a common criminal I definitely will not be returning to Bristol

BRISTOL CITTY CENTRE 3GS .. i was approached by one of these “thugs” 10 minutes after the “offence” which he spotted whilst having a coffee break there are no signs in regards to enforcement and actually very little to no bins located in the area …

I was immediately intimidated by this character and was “tricked” into giving my details I was then further intimidated by another thug who was his partner… I was shocked and felt vulnerable I wasn’t explained my rights so I gave my details and asked what the appeal process was they told me I had to pay the fine and then could appeal this information is incorrect !! .. I immediately paid the fine as I do not want to go to court or have a criminal record I can’t afford to do that so I have very little choice but to pay and now struggle to pay my bills for the remainder of the month after having been fleeced by these two “officers” .. I have contacted their customer service team and a very rude uneducated woman answered and throughout the call belittled myself and said you can’t appeal as you paid unlucky not our problem anymore …I tried to have a reasonable conversation but she was unhelpful and really didn’t want to know or even care about what I was trying to explain .. overall this whole experience has been horrible and financially hard I already have unstable mental health and social anxieties and I have been completely taken advantage of by these people .. I have no way of having this dealt with fairly just a complete scam