WELL-HEELED Cairns residents driving new-model cars are being caught out dumping rubbish and stealing from charity bins.

Taxi and bus drivers are also regular culprits.

But charities say they are helpless to stop the thefts and piles of rubbish and furniture left strewn at drop-off locations.

Lifeline says it cannot afford security cameras, the Salvation Army has been forced to put up barbed wire around its headquarters and St Vincent de Paul says video footage is not enough to catch the crooks.

In the latest theft, a well-dressed woman driving a current-model wagon was seen rifling through four Lifeline bins on Cheviot St at Smithfield.

She was confronted by an angry Neighbourhood Watch member.

"She loaded the stuff in all right," said the member, who wished to remain anonymous.

"I said: 'You're robbing the poor'. Some of the stuff was quite good.

"She was aged about 25-30 and said she was in that category, but she obviously wasn't," he said.

St Vincent De Paul Cairns co-ordinator Maree Fell said bus and taxi drivers had also been caught on camera stealing and dumping, but said the cameras did not always capture vehicle registrations.

"They make it very hard for the actual needy people," she said.

"It's all levels of society - they pick the eyes out of it."

Lifeline Cairns business director Frank Costa said it was common to see smartly dressed people in "nice cars" stealing from bins but said the charity could not afford security cameras.

He said theft was a huge cost on the charity and the Cheviot St bins were often targeted.

Cairns Salvation Army Captain Craig Spooner said he was forced to put up barbed wire around his shop to decrease thefts.

"Some have driven nice cars," he said.

"It gets me angry at the time but you have to be compassionate.

"Somebody might have a nice car with a home loan and they've just lost their job."

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