Two black bags of rubbish were left in a Torteval field rented by farmer Tom Bougourd just before New Year.
They were only discovered after the bags had been ripped open and their contents blown across the field.
Mr Bougourd, who is 83 and awaiting a knee operation, had to pick up the rubbish that had scattered across the field himself.
‘What is really frustrating is that the most of the rubbish was paper and plastic and could have been recycled for free,’ he said. ‘Why should an 83-year-old have to clean up a field just because someone is too lazy to do their recycling?’
On picking up the rubbish he discovered that it contained bank statements and invoices, all with a name and address on from a housing estate in St Peter Port, including receipts that were dated just a few days before the rubbish was found.
Mr Bougourd’s friend and neighbour Kevin Smith rang the police on his behalf.
‘They told me it was told this was not a police matter, and that Tom, as the landowner, would have to remove the stuff at his own expense and then send the bill for cleaning up and disposal to the person identified in the paperwork,’ said Mr Smith. ‘If the bill was not paid he could have then take the person to Petty Debts.
‘It seems incredible that they weren’t interested even though we had obvious evidence of who did it. It would be so easy for an officer to knock on their door and have a word.
‘There was rubbish dumped in the cemetery up the road a few months ago, that had the perpetrator’s address on and they were arrested. Why is this different?’
In response a police spokesman said that Mr Smith had been given the correct advice. He added that the fly-tipping that had occurred in November at La Croix Cemetery had taken place on public land and that police did not have the powers to prosecute fly-tipping on private land.
However the director of Environmental Health and Pollution Regulation, Tobin Cook, said it was an offence to dispose of household or commercial waste at a site that does not have a waste management licence, and his office could take steps to act.
He said that if anyone found waste dumped on their land, with evidence of where it had come from, they should contact Environmental Health on 221161 or email envhealth@gov.gg.
‘Although we can’t take responsibility for removing the waste, our team will then investigate and take action where possible.’
Mr Bourgourd added that as well as the black bags he had also recently had a number of glass bottles thrown in a neighbouring field.
‘I don’t know if that was done at the same time,’ he said. ‘But the field is used for grass for silage. If they hadn’t been spotted they could have easily been ground up when the field is cut and you would be feeding cut glass to cows, which would not be funny.’
Mr Smith said they still had the option of writing to the suspected culprit and pursuing him that way.
‘It’s something we are still considering,’ he said. ‘This person knows who they are and if it’s not their fault, I’d love to know the reason their name was on all the documents that were dumped there.’