We were fined £1,200 by the council for cleaning up rubbish that was attracting rats – we just wanted to help

A COUPLE are angry after being fined £1,200 by the council for cleaning up their street after it was overrun by rats.

Veronika Mike, 41 and Zoltan Pinter, 46 from Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire were horrified after they were handed the hefty fine by the local council.

The pair said how their two-bedroom terraced house became a dumping ground for years - with people leaving waste around overflowing bins.

"A lot of people don’t use their own bin, they just put it on top of others,” explained Zoltan.

"The situation has become so severe that Veronika has spotted rats, cats and seagulls going through the litter.

“I’m actually afraid to walk past it in the street because I’ve seen a lot of rats and what looks like stray cats,” she said.

“They are attracted by the smell and tear through the plastic bags, that’s why there is so much rubbish scattered around the bins,” added Zoltan.

“The bins are in front of our main entrance, it’s disgusting,” Veronika said.

In April, Zoltan decided to take matters into his own hands and filled an old cardboard box with the food scraps and litter.

He placed the box beside the bins in the hope that Stoke-on-Trent City Council would collect it.

“We didn’t want to have to look at it for another week, he left the box by the bins, hoping the binmen would be able to collect it," Veronika explained.

“I couldn’t put in the bins because they were full, so I left it beside them,” he said

Zoltan said that the cardboard box was a delivery box, and had his name and address written on it - resulting in the authorities thinking he was responsible for the rubbish.

Despite his good deed, he received a fixed penalty notice for illegal dumping and a £600 fine.