The use of a garbage truck in the robbery and murder of Mandeville couple Richard and Julia Lyn has sparked hostility towards waste disposal crew in some Manchester communities, according to an official at Southern Parks and Markets (SPM).

“We have had trucks gone into communities where they have been stoned and the workers abused,” Garfield Murray, acting regional operations manager at SPM, told the Observer on Friday.

Murray declined to name the communities, offering only that they are on the outskirts of Mandeville, the mid-island town where the Lyns lived and operated a business.

The attacks, Murray said, have resulted in some workers refusing to go into the hostile communities, forcing the SPM to reduce the number of crew on each truck.

“Right now, on some trucks it should be four sidemen, especially for the tipper truck, which is higher, and yet I have to put three on them because I can’t find four,” Murray told the Observer.

He said that during Christmas, the SPM had to contract some new trucks to assist with garbage collection, however finding crew was like pulling teeth.

“People who even previously came to seek employment here don’t want the job now because they will make little comments like we don’t want them to go and bury us too,” said Murray.

The Lyns were abducted from their home in Ingleside on December 10 and their house robbed. Last week, police confirmed that human remains found at the Martin’s Hill landfill outside Mandeville on December 30 were those of the elderly couple.

The bodies were taken to the landfill by a garbage truck which police said was also used by the Lyns’ abductors to transport furniture and large appliances from the couple’s house.

More furniture and large appliances belonging to other people have since been recovered by the police who said that the thieves were using a garbage truck in their operations.

On Friday, Murray said that while the truck used by the thieves was one of seven contracted in the SPM region, it was not working for the agency at the time of the Lyn incident. He said the truck was one of those pulled from the pool close to the time of the incident because its contract had expired.

“Yes, it was reported that a garbage truck was involved, however the truck involved is not owned by National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) or SPM,” he explained.

“We have supplementary fleets which are hired units used from time-to-time, and the truck in question came from that supplementary fleet,” said Murray. “That person (the truck owner) hires his crew, so we have no control over that. All we ensure is that we get the service we are paying for.”

Murray said he spoke with the owner of the truck who was shocked at the incident, as he had no idea that his truck was being used for anything else other than the collection and disposal of garbage.

“He was so overwhelmed and shocked, that we had cheques here for him and he told us he was too embarrassed to come for them,” Murray said of the truck owner.

The SPM boss said the incident has stigmatised the agency as some residents believe that the trucks have been involved in incidents of this nature before.

“I think it is a matter of ignorance and lack of information on the part of the public, because once they hear garbage truck they readily identify SPM as the culprit,” he said.

According to Murray, the SPM co-operated fully with the police, providing them with additional equipment and direction at the disposal site. “I myself spent four days on that site,” he said.

The particular truck, he added, may never be able to work in the supplementary pool again because of the incident.

“I don’t think we will be able to use it again, because it is the only one of its kind being used for that purpose in the entire region,” he said.