Banned rubbish could have filled three Albert Halls. Confiscation order comes as Environment Agency closes 750 illegal waste sites in 12 months
A Hertfordshire man must repay £52,872 for his role in burying 200,000m³ of illegal waste at Codicote Quarry, as the Environment Agency steps up action on waste crime.
Mark Winters served a 12-month suspended prison sentence for his part in burying illegal household and business rubbish at Codicote Quarry, near Stevenage.
Investigators said the amount of illegal rubbish at the landfill site could have filled the Albert Hall 3 times over.
Now, Luton Crown Court told Winters he faces 2 years in jail if he doesn’t pay back profits of almost £53,000 he raked in from the scam.
For nearly 3 years, lorry after lorry carried banned and potentially harmful cargo into the quarry. Electrical items, furniture, car parts, food packaging, wood and metal were all dumped.
Former teacher Liam Winters, and Mark Winter’s brother, was given 17 months in prison in 2023 for the offences at Codicote that also covered illegal waste left at another quarry, this time, in the nearby village of Anstey, and a firing range at Nuthampstead, south of Royston.
Liam Winters was previously ordered to pay back almost £79,000 in profits from the 3 sites.
Mark Winters, 51, of Loverock Crescent, and Liam Winters, 48, from High Street, Hilmorton, both in Rugby, are serving 8-year bans as company directors as a result of the scam. The older brother was also given 200 hours of unpaid work alongside his suspended prison term.
At the same court hearing at Luton that decided how much Mark Winters pays back, the company the brothers ran was fined £1,000, with a victim surcharge of £187.
Earlier hearings were told that Codicote Quarry Ltd’s permit allowed for the treatment and storage of a small amount of soil waste, but did not hold it in huge quantities.
As much as 200,000 cubic metres of harmful biodegradable materials were buried at Codicote.
Barry Russell, environment manager for the Environment Agency in Hertfordshire, said:
“We are determined that waste operators who break the law don’t benefit from their crimes.
It was clear every time we visited the 3 sites, there was no substantial change to the illegal way they were being run.
Operations like Anstey and Codicote are damaging in many ways, including the potential or actual harm caused to the environment by inappropriate and illegal storage of waste materials, and the financial impact on businesses who follow the rules, pay their way and protect the environment.
Despite warnings from the Environment Agency to stop, Mark Winters and the other men carried on bringing in more illegal waste.”
The pair showed no regard for the law and the effect of their business on the environment.
The illegal disposal means Codicote Quarry will need to be monitored for many years to minimise the risk of polluting the River Mimram and groundwater sources, as the quarry was not set up for landfill use.
Soil was used at all 3 sites to cover some of the waste in an attempt to avoid detection
At separate hearings 2 years ago, the two men admitted 4 identical charges amounting to allowing or being involved in accepting waste and storing it at Codicote Quarry between January 2015 and November 2017. This was either outside the conditions of the site’s Environment Agency permit or without a permit at all.
They were also charged for ignoring a suspension notice to stop operations.
The Environment Agency prosecuted the brothers under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 and the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
In a recent hearing at Luton Crown Court, Mark Winters was ordered to pay back £52,872.90 in a proceeds of crime order brought by the Environment Agency.
Codicote Quarry Ltd, of Anstey Chalk Quarry, Anstey, Buntingford, Hertfordshire, admitted breaching regulation 38 (2) and 77 of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016, in that the amount of waste stored at Codicote exceeded the conditions of its permit to operate.
In 2022, Nicholas Bramwell, 46, then of Shepherds Close, Royston, was fined £1,450 and ordered to pay £8,000 towards the Environment Agency’s costs and a victim surcharge of £120. He admitted breaching 5 counts of environmental law at Anstey Quarry and the shooting ground.
There is no suggestion that the owners of the 2 quarries and the shooting ground played any part in the criminal activity.
In the year ending March 2025, the Environment Agency closed 743 illegal waste sites; of these, 143 were high-risk.
Source www.gov.uk
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