Yesterday, Simon Plowright of Top Farm, Barton in Fabis in Nottingham, was sentenced at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court to one charge relating to the operation of a waste facility without an environmental permit.
He pleaded guilty at an earlier court hearing.
Mr Plowright, 49, was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £1,561.61 in costs, along with a £15 victim surcharge, for allowing others to use his farm as a tipping ground for various waste types.
The charge was brought by the Environment Agency under Regulations 38(1)(a) and 12(1) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010.
After being alerted to suspicious waste activities at Top Farm by officers from Rushcliffe Borough Council, the Environment Agency worked in partnership with the local authority and undertook a covert surveillance operation of Mr Plowright’s land in August 2012.
Officers from the Environment Agency discovered that up to eight individuals entered Top Farm with commercial vehicles and deposited various types of waste, including construction and demolition waste, and green waste. When officers entered the site they observed other items had been deposited including soil, bricks, plastic sheeting, fungicide containers, paper and electrical items. The operation also uncovered a mixture of commercial waste was being burned on site. Officers attended Top Farm again on 10 September 2012 when a further fire was in progress.
Speaking after the case, an Environment Agency officer in charge of the investigation said: “This was a large scale waste operation where Mr Plowright allowed waste to be brought onto his land without being permitted to do so. Illegal waste sites have the potential to cause serious pollution incidents or harm human health, and this prosecution demonstrates that we take waste crime very seriously and will not hesitate to prosecute if necessary, to protect the environment and local communities.”
In mitigation, Mr Plowright entered a prompt guilty plea and informed the court that he would take action to remove the waste from his farm.
For more information about the action we are taking to reduce waste crime, visit our website at www.environment-agency.gov.uk/wastecrime. We urge people to report waste crime on our Incident Hotline 0800 80 70 60 or anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/news/149204.aspx
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