A MUM who denied dumping a heap of rubbish including Bibles has been vindicated by Colchester magistrates.

Jackie Pegram was found not guilty of depositing waste without an environmental permit near her home in Veronica Walk, Colchester.

Colchester Council zone warden Sam Lancaster linked the heap to Ms Pegram, 37, when she found a blue children’s Bible and storybook both with the same name written in it.

Although Ms Pegram agreed who the books belonged to, she said a member of family had confessed to losing them.

Representing herself, she said: “The Bible went missing just before my child was due to go away with church. There’s nine of us living at home so we thought it was misplaced.

“Another of my children was blamed for it because they were outside together at the time.

“Everybody dumps things at the side of my house. There’s a large bag of roof slates which is still there now and doesn’t belong to me.”

Ms Lancaster, who was called to give evidence, claimed this was not the first time Ms Pegram had been reprimanded over rubbish.

She said: “I’ve called on Ms Pegram several times over the years, educating her about putting rubbish out incorrectly and advising her on the fact she can use a freephone number to take items away.

“Once we took action I got an irate telephone message from Ms Pegram, demanding I ring her back. I then terminated the call later on because we weren’t getting anywhere.

“She began to get verbally abusive down the phone and stated she wasn’t going to pay the notice.”

Disputing this, Ms Pegram added: “You’ve only ever knocked on my door telling me I put my black bins out too early, never about fly-tipping.”

Shaun Rayner, chairman of the bench, said magistrates were unable to prove Ms Pegram knowingly deposited the waste.

He added: “We found her account to be plausible and therefore, find you not guilty.”

The case was dismissed.