Three men who were caught fly-tipping on a motorway were taken back to the scene and ordered to pick up what they'd dumped.
Traffic police pulled over three blokes who had dumped bags full of rubbish on a grass verge on the M6 on Sunday (28 March) after being spotted by CCTV operators from Highways England.
The trio were stopped around five miles away and then escorted back to where the bags had been left.
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Images shared on Twitter by Central Motorway Police Group show the men picking up the litter on the road side.
A caption alongside the photo read: "M6 J12 to J13 a eagle eyed @HighwaysWMIDS who was monitoring the CCTV cameras notice the occupants of a Passat dumping rubbish in a ERA bay.
"We intercepted the vehicle M6 J14 to J15 and escorted them back clear their rubbish up. Details passed to @EnvAgency. 5419."
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Social media users were delighted with the punishment meted out to the men, with one person saying: "Good job lads. We need more of this please.
"I just can't understand people who dump rubbish. Why? Just put it in your bin or take to the local tip."
Another wrote: "Being forced to clean up their mess with their own hands should be automatic with any case of fly tipping along with any other legal sanctions."
A third commented: "I would love to have seen their faces when pulled over by you. Bloody fantastic work officers."
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While another said: "Good work, bet they won't do that again in a hurry. Hope they get a fine on top of clearing their mess up."
James Hawkes, Highways England network operations manager for the Midlands, said: "We spotted this blatant and reckless abuse of one of our designated emergency areas on our CCTV system and quickly passed it to the police.
"We continue to work closely with our police colleagues who enforce issues like this. Emergency areas are there for just that, an emergency.
"They're not there for people who fly-tip, which is highly irresponsible and illegal."
Featured Image Credit: Central Motorway Police Group
