John Baird was sentenced at Newry Crown Court for two offences relating to the unauthorised keeping of controlled waste at sites in the vicinity of Dublin Road and Bog Road, Banbridge.
Baird had previously pleaded guilty at Banbridge Magistrates’ Court, sitting at Newry, on 3 November 2025.
The offences were brought under Article 4(1)(b) of the Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997, relating to keeping controlled waste on land without a waste management licence.
The Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) received a report on 2 February 2023 concerning a large number of end-of-life vehicles on land off Dublin and Bog Roads.
During a site inspection on 21 February, NIEA officers found hundreds of end-of-life vehicles and hundreds of tonnes of controlled waste. The material included scrap metal, car parts, mixed plastic waste, used wood and used household goods.
The waste was spread across several fields, as well as being found inside trailers and around buildings.
NIEA subsequently contacted Baird, the occupier of the sites, and issued an Article 27 notice requiring him to remove the controlled waste.
However, when officers returned on 3 October 2024, they found that the vast majority of the waste remained. The agency estimated that only between 20% and 30% of the controlled waste had been legally removed, including only some of the end-of-life vehicles.
NIEA carried out a further full inspection of the sites on 28 August 2026 and deemed that Baird had completed the required remediation.
An NIEA spokesperson commented: “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.”
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