John Baird, 61, has been handed a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, after dumping scrap vehicles on his land.
The Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) first received reports of a large number of End-of-Life Vehicles located on land off the Dublin and Bog Roads, Banbridge, in 2023.
Officers conducted a site inspection and observed hundreds of End-of-Life vehicles and hundreds of tonnes of controlled waste.
The waste, including scrap metals, car parts, mixed plastic waste, used wood and some used household goods, was spread across several fields, within trailers and surrounding buildings.
NEIA issued a notice to Baird requiring him to remediate the controlled waste. However, when officers returned to the site in October 2024, they observed the ‘vast majority’ of the controlled waste had not been removed.
The Agency estimated that between 20-30% of the controlled waste, including only some of the End-of-Life Vehicles, had been removed legally from the sites.
Baird was charged and pleaded guilty to two counts of unauthorised keeping of controlled waste at Banbridge Magistrates’ Court in 2025.
When officers returned to the land in August 2026, they conducted a full inspection of the land and deemed that Baird had remediated the land as was previously required of him.
Commenting on the sentencing, an NIEA spokesperson said: “This represents a significant positive outcome insofar as the law has been upheld and a conviction secured.”
“However, importantly, the waste has also been removed at the expense of the defendant. This means that the environment has been protected without significant cost to the taxpayer.”
