Waste Crime: Rogue Operators Hunted Down

By Emma Birchley, East of England Correspondent

Illegal waste operators are being tracked down and forced out of business as part of a crackdown on their criminal trade.

A Environment Agency taskforce shut down a record 1,279 sites in the last financial year, almost double the previous 12 months, where traders had dumped or buried waste, or sorted it ready for illegal export without the necessary permits.

The cost of the crime is put at £1bn, according to the organisation's environment and business manager Bob Mead.

"The people who operate illegally probably don't pay taxes, they certainly aren't paying their proper landfill tax, so there are a variety of income sources which government isn't getting," he said.

"And there is the money lost to legitimate industry that would be paying the appropriate taxes."

On the edge of Brigg in North Lincolnshire, enforcement officers found a warehouse packed with thousands of vast bales of plastic as well as mounds of loose rubbish blowing about the yard.

Thick swarms of flies spread to the town, proof that the stinking waste was contaminated.

At the White Hart pub half a mile away the problem became unbearable for owner Andy Carrington.

"This area was badly affected. On this street there is another pub, a butchers, a bakery," he told Sky News.

"It soon became clear we were all suffering, we were all struggling with them which makes the town look bad."

The illegal operator was fined £13,500 but 17 months after the waste was found, most of it is still festering in the unit.

And if he does not remove it, it will be up to the landowner to clear.

By failing to follow procedures and get the necessary licences, rogue operators can undercut their legitimate competitors, like Bell Waste Control in Scunthorpe.

General manager Steve Kent said: "It's so frustrating that we have to go through all the procedures ... to get the lads' health and safety and the environmental management, and bogus operators are going round with none of this, filling warehouses with waste and walking away from it."

The extra funding for the illegal waste sites taskforce ends soon, but the Environment Agency says it will use the methods it has developed to keep the pressure on the criminals.

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