Five organisations have been fined over £70,000 at Ipswich Crown Court after 121,000 tonnes of waste were illegally dumped on farmland in Suffolk.
The case centred on two sites at Iken – Hill Farm and The Anchorage – where more than 121,000 tonnes of rubble, concrete, brick, wood and plastic from housing developments across Suffolk were stockpiled between 2016 and 2018.
Judge Martyn Levett described the scale of the activity as ‘completely off the scale’ and said the companies involved had acted negligently.
The largest fine went to Nicholls Ltd, a Kesgrave-based haulage and waste management company, which was ordered to pay £26,666. In March, the firm was ordered to pay £425,000 as part of a proceeds of crime order, which is designed to ensure offenders don’t profit financially from crime.
Three firms that supplied Nicholls with waste – Howard Construction (Anglia) Ltd, Barconn Ltd, and Landex Ltd – admitted they failed to check where the material was going. They received fines of £18,000, £14,000, and £8,000 respectively.
The East Suffolk Water Management Board, which arranged for the waste to be held on farmland but failed to obtain the required permits, was fined £4,000. The judge said the board had ‘turned a blind eye’ to the activity.
All five organisations pleaded guilty to offences under environmental permitting and waste duty of care laws. In addition to the fines, they were ordered to pay £102,250 in costs and victim surcharges.
Nicholls will pay £62,000; East Suffolk Water Management Board £15,500; Howard Construction £7,750; and Barconn and Landex £7,500 each.
Lesley Robertson, enforcement team leader at the Environment Agency, said the case showed how seriously the courts viewed waste crime: “Anyone who transports or disposes of waste has a duty of care to ensure it is handled correctly and taken to a legitimate permitted facility.
“East Suffolk Water Management Board and Nicholls operated at a distinct commercial advantage. Waste was imported on a huge scale over a long period without the benefit of appropriate permits meant to protect the public and the environment.”
The Environment Agency said that its investigation made it ‘crystal clear’ the companies involved knew, or should have known, that the operation was unlawful.
Investigators found that much of the waste dumped by the companies was wrongly described as soil, despite containing plastic, timber, brick and concrete.
Attempts by the East Suffolk Water Management Board to legitimise the waste by registering exemptions quickly breached legal limits due to the sheer volume of waste taken to the sites by Nicholls.
Counsel for the Environment Agency, Richard Beynon, told the court that the five organisations had the experience and staff to operate legally but ‘chose not to’.