A Templeogue man, who had been fined £400 for litter pollution, has won his appeal at Dublin Circuit Court.
Judge Elizabeth Dunne was told that Mr Derek Deegan, of Three Rock Close, Templeogue, Dublin was the secretary of his local residents' association and had been fighting litter louts for years.
Two of Mr Deegan's household refuse sacks were found in one of a number of public litter bins he had fought so hard to have erected. He was on holiday with his family in Trabolgan, Co Cork, at the time.
Upholding Mr Deegan's appeal, Judge Dunne accepted the probability was that scrap gathers had taken the plastic bags from his home, searched them for marketable metal and dumped them in the bin. A litter warden had traced the refuse to Mr Deegan because of a discarded envelope.