The trio were sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court last week, having been convicted of dumping hundreds of tonnes of waste at five locations across Barking, Havering, Hertfordshire and Essex between 2012 and 2014. Sites used by the group included a yard in Waltham Cross owned by Network Rail.
William Jones, 39, and Glenn Harper, 32, were jailed for 12 and 13 months respectively while the third man, Sean Collard, 53, was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for two years.
Mr Jones and Mr Harper were also ordered to pay back a combined total of more than £226,755.
The court may also increase the proceeds of crime orders against Jones and Harper, as they are believed to have benefitted financially by more than £700,000, the Agency has said.
Investigation
The Environment Agency said that investigators had first begun inquiries into the men after waste was found at a site in Choats Road in Barking in October 2012.
CCTV footage showed material including wood and textiles being unloaded at the site from a lorry with false number plates.
The following month at the former site of a printing works at Thurrock in Essex, an articulated lorry was used to transport and tip 640 tonnes of aggregate at a site in Oliver Road, Leyton over the course of three days, “costing the landowners more than £120,000 to clear”.
In another incident, around New Year 2013, the Agency said that one of the men had rented a Network Rail owned site close to the M25 at Waltham Cross in Hertfordshire. EA officers later found the site in Bryanstone Road was filled with waste wrapped in bales of black plastic.
All three men were arrested by Essex Police at the Environment Agency’s request.
Commenting on the conviction, Emma Viner, area enforcement manager for the Environment Agency, said: “The men involved showed a complete disregard to the landowners or taxpayers, less still, the harm dumping hundreds of tonnes of waste would have on the environment. This highly-organised operation broke the law on a commercial scale, but that same law caught up with them in the end.
“The prison sentences laid down in court by the judge show crime does not pay, also proven by more than £200,000 recovered from the men in a proceeds of crime order or court costs.”
Mr Harper and Mr Collard each pleaded guilty to four counts of breaching environmental law, while Mr Jones admitted three counts.
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