Farmland waste dumper ordered to pay £1.4m
Fly-tipped waste at The Drift, Grantham © Environment Agency A serial waste criminal has been ordered to pay more than £1.4m after illegally dumping over 4,275t of waste at farms and rural sites across England.
Varun Datta, 36, of Little Chester Street, London, was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on 13 February, following a major investigation by the Environment Agency.
He must pay £1,116,432.78 under a Confiscation Order, £100,000 in compensation and £200,000 in prosecution costs.
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He also received a four-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months, 30 days of rehabilitation and 200 hours of unpaid work.
The court heard that Datta, a registered waste broker through his company Atkins Recycling, falsely claimed waste was being sent to a permitted site near Sheffield.
Instead, it was diverted to 16 unlicensed locations spanning Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Lancashire, Kent, Surrey, Rutland and Middlesbrough.
Sites included working farms, a historic manor house, the former Sulzer Dowding Mills Factory in Middlesbrough and Middleton Nature Reserve in Lancashire.
The majority of the material was mixed municipal waste baled in plastic.
Judge Paul Farrar KC described the offending as “reckless”, noting problems with smell and flies and significant clean-up costs for landowners.
Compensation and damages
Of the £100,000 compensation, £70,000 will go to Middlesbrough Council and £30,000 to the Lancashire Wildlife Trust for management of the damaged reserve.
Two other brokers were also prosecuted. Mohammed Saraji Bashir, 45, of Windmill Street, Peterborough, received a four-month suspended sentence, rehabilitation and unpaid work, while Robert William McAllister, of Iveagh Close, Northwood, London, was fined £750 in relation to controlled waste that was deposited at two sites.
The court was told that both men failed to ensure that the waste transferred was going to permitted sites.
Warrants remain active for two further suspects – Sandeep Golechha, 53, of Wheatley Close, London, and Jason Newman, of no fixed abode.
The Environment Agency said the case demonstrates that waste criminals “have nowhere to hide” and urged farmers to remain vigilant and report suspicious waste activity via its 24-hour hotline.