Not naturally inclined to just shrug and mutter, the father-of-two dutifully called Kirklees council to complain, only to get stuck in an automated call handling system.

He then "just blew a fuse", grabbed the wheelie bin and dragged it to Cleckheaton Town Hall, a ten-minute walk away, where he dumped its contents over the floor as two elderly ladies looked on.

Then he went back home, feeling satisfied that the "puny and pathetic protest" had made his point well.

Friends compared his frustrated actions to those of Michael Douglas' character in the movie Falling Down – except Mr Margetts didn't resort to guns, and Cleckheaton isn't exactly Los Angeles.

His rubbish protest against Kirklees council was caputured on CCTV cameras and he was traced by an addressed envelope that council staff fished out of the rubbish pile.

It meant an appearance before magistrates in Dewsbury where he was preparing to argue a long and complicated defence about the council allegedly failing to honour its "statutory duties", but in the end pleaded guilty to a charge of dumping waste without a licence, was given a conditional discharge for 12 months and told to pay £475 costs.

After the case, Mr Margetts, 45, said the council's double failure to empty his bins had been the "final straw" during a particularly stressful few years when he had made complaints to various public bodies.

During a long talk with the Yorkshire Post, he produced huge files detailing his personal battles on issues including planning law, student loans, data protection, policing and refuse collection.

"The rubbish collection issue was the final straw for me. The authorities have failed me again and again," he said.

"The first time they failed to take the rubbish because there was some garden waste in there. The next time they did it I just blew a fuse. They just couldn't get it right."

Mr Margetts, who lives in Cleckheaton with his partner and two daughters, also had a battle with the local police after youths damaged a car on his drive and taunted him on his own doorstep. When he tried to make a citizen's arrest he was beaten up.

Although arrests were eventually made, he felt he had not been taken seriously and a 999 call operator had been "distinctly frosty", he said.

Then he woke up one morning to find a neighbour had built an extension and he hadn't been consulted. Several months and dozens of emails later he won an apology from the council and a £25 Marks & Spencer voucher.

The voucher only made him angrier: "Why they thought a 25 quid voucher appropriate recompense is utterly beyond my comprehension. I think they were having a laugh at my expense."

Mr Margetts, who has trained as a teacher and is an IT expert, then had a run in with Kirklees council over personal data he claims it put online in a planning application.

Yesterday he admitted that he wasn't the kind of person to just shrug and walk away. "I feel like throwing in the towel as a citizen. I woke up this morning disturbed to find myself with a criminal record, so my future career as a teacher is over."

He added: The authorities appear impervious. The council should have used my protest as a learning exercise, rather than view me as a troublesome problem."

Coun David Hall said: "This kind of behaviour will not be tolerated."