Environment Agency | “Completely off the scale” is how the Environment Agency describes two years of mismanagement of waste from housing developments across Suffolk.

Some five organisations have been fined £70,666 for the huge amount of unpermitted waste stockpiled at two farms between 2016 and 2018.

When the Environment Agency heard about thousands of lorries moving waste along narrow roads in the village of Iken, they soon established more than 121,000 tonnes had been dumped at the two locations, Hill Farm and The Anchorage.

Haulage and waste management firm Nicholls Ltd took the waste to Iken on behalf of East Suffolk Water Management Board, but without the permission from the Environment Agency.

Judge Martyn Levett fined Nicholls, of Kesgrave, £26,666 at Ipswich crown court.

In March 2025, he ordered them to pay £425,000 in a proceeds of crime order, which is designed to ensure offenders don’t profit financially from wrongdoing.

Nicholls was given the waste by three firms, who admitted they failed to check where it was going.

Howard Construction (Anglia) Ltd, of near Woodbridge, was fined £18,000. Barconn Ltd, of Norwich, was given a £14,000 penalty. Ipswich-based Landex Limited was fined £8,000.

Judge Levett said East Suffolk Water Management Board “turned a blind eye” to what was happening. They asked for the waste to be held at the farms but failed to obtain the appropriate permit from the Environment Agency. They were fined £4,000.

It was clear from the Environment Agency’s investigation that all five should have known the rules on the management of waste. They were experienced operators in the construction and waste industries.

Counsel for the Environment Agency Richard Beynon earlier told the court the five organisations had the people and experience to know how to operate legally but chose not to.

It was evident from interviews and statements with senior staff that assumptions were made about what permissions were obtained by others in the chain from housing developments to the farms where the waste was left.

Investigators found both the vast quantity of waste and its composition meant the two locations it had been taken to were illegal. The waste contained wood, plastic, concrete and brick that was wrongly described as soil.

The court was earlier told the water management board did nothing to stop the waste being brought in or make any attempt to secure the appropriate Environment Agency permission.

More than half the illegal waste, around 62,000 tonnes, was supplied by Howard Construction. Barconn and Landex provided around a third again.

East Suffolk Water Management Board sought to legitimise the waste at Iken by registering two waste exemptions. However, the sheer volume of what was taken there by Nicholls meant the exemptions were quickly breached and illegal.

All five organisations pleaded guilty to charges brought by the Environment Agency.

East Suffolk Water Management Board, based in Horsley’s Fields, King’s Lynn, Norfolk, operated a waste management facility on land at Iken without an environmental permit, in breach of regulation 12(1)(a) and 38(1)(a) of the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2010 and 2016.

Nicholls Ltd, of Sinks Pit, Main Road, Kesgrave, left the waste at the same locations without a permit, contrary to section 33(1)(a) and (6) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

Howard Construction (Anglia) Ltd, of Boot Street, Great Bealings, near Woodbridge, Barconn Ltd, of Meridian Way, Norwich, and Landex Ltd, of Holywells Road, in Ipswich, were all charged with failing to comply with the duty of care around on the transfer of waste, under section 34(1)(a) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

The defendants were ordered to pay the Environment Agency’s costs of £102,250. Nicholls will pay £62,000, East Suffolk Water Management Board £15,500, Howard Construction £7,750, and Barconn and Landex £7,500 each.

They will also have to pay victim surcharges totalling £850, or £170 each.

FIA | A company director from West Sussex has been fined after being found guilty of multiple breaches of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

Sawar Hussain, the ‘Responsible Person’ for fire safety management at NAASTA, an Indian street food takeaway located at 226 London Road in Burgess Hill, was prosecuted by West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service. He faced five charges brought under the fire safety legislation.

During an inspection of the premises, fire safety officers identified several serious breaches which placed residents sleeping in the building at significant risk. The breaches included:

• The lack of a suitable fire alarm system.
• Inadequate means of escape.
• Inadequate fire safety arrangements.
• Lack of testing and maintenance of key fire safety systems, including fire alarms and emergency lighting.
• No evidence of sufficient staff training in respect of fire safety.

Area Manager Dave Bray, head of fire safety for West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, said: “Fire safety regulations are in place for a reason and those with legal responsibility for fire safety management must adhere to these laws. The safety of the public is our highest priority. This sentencing serves as a clear reminder to all West Sussex businesses about the importance of complying with the fire safety legislation.”

He added: “West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service is committed to supporting businesses to ensure the safety of the public by providing fire safety advice and guidance and will always work with those who are willing to address their fire safety issues. We will not allow companies to attempt to hide from their duties when our fire safety inspectors identify that the lives of the public are being put at risk and will pursue legal action when appropriate.”

Hussain was fined a total of £6,200.

Environment Agency | The EA has secured convictions against Cats and Dust Limited, its director Cavin Mears, and former director Stephen Bryce for operating waste sites without the required environmental permits.

At Preston Crown Court, Cats and Dust Ltd was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £6,000 in costs.

Cavin Mears, 45, from Euxton, Chorley received a 12-month community order requiring 200 hours of unpaid work and was ordered to pay £5,360 in compensation to the Environment Agency, along with £6,000 in costs.

Stephen Bryce,45, from Lancaster was given a 12-month community order requiring 150 hours of unpaid work and was ordered to pay £6,000 in costs.

The court heard that Mears and Bryce were previously directors of RF Recycling Ltd, a company operating a regulated facility without a permit. The facility was at Unit 6, Twin Lakes Industrial Estate, Croston, Lancashire, and operated without an environmental permit between January and June 2020.

Following a visit from the Environment Agency in October 2021, RF Recycling ceased trading. However, Cats and Dust Ltd commenced trading immediately afterwards, operating unlawfully from a separate unit within the same trading estate until January 2022.

Cavin Mears, a former director of RF Recycling Ltd, is the sole director of Cats and Dust Ltd. Stephen Bryce resigned as a director in September 2021, shortly before Cats and Dust Ltd began trading.

Environment Agency | Five men convicted of offences in connection with an illegal waste site at Long Bennington, Lincolnshire, have had confiscation orders totalling £74,751.16.

A Proceeds of Crime Award hearing led by the Environment Agency was concluded at Nottingham Crown Court.

Waste broker and dealer Robert Malone was fined £1,165.00 and received a confiscation order of £45,948.

Daniel Lippitt, an operator who deposited waste at the site, received a confiscation order of £10,000.

Luke Woodward and Sonial Surpal, lorry drivers who deposited waste at the site, received confiscation orders of £1,111.61 and £16,511.55 respectively.

Site operative Nathan Jones received a confiscation order of £1,180.

A total of 12 people were found guilty in 2024 of waste crime charges relating to a site at Fen Lane, Long Bennington. Lorry-loads of shredded waste were regularly burnt on land close to people’s homes. Seven defendants received custodial sentences and four received suspended sentences, while at the hearing the remaining defendant was also fined.

In addition, in August 2025 transport company Fletcher Plant Limited were sentenced after being found guilty of failing their duty of care to establish that the site they delivered waste to was operating legally.

As the company received a confiscation order of £37,587.13, the overall Proceeds of Crime total secured by the Environment Agency now stands at £112,338.29. There is still more to come from key players in the case.

The Environment Agency will now bring a Proceeds of Crime Award hearing against the main offenders, family of three Paul, Judith, and Joshua Canner, who ran the illegal waste site. This hearing will also include landowners Marc Greenfield,46, of Fosse Road, Brough and James Baggaley, 39, of Back Lane, Foston who have been ordered to remove the remaining waste from the site.

Security Industry Authority | A man has been convicted of fraud after SIA investigators found him working as a door supervisor with a cloned licence.

Adedoyin Ajanaku pleaded guilty to an offence under Section 2 and an offence under Section 6 of the Fraud Act 2006 at Bromley Magistrates Court. He was ordered to pay a fine of £80, a victim surcharge of £32, and prosecution costs of £350, totalling £462.

Mr. Ajanaku was discovered working as a door supervisor by SIA investigation officers during a routine inspection at a venue in Islington, presenting what appeared to be an SIA licence card.

During the inspection, the officers were able to establish that although the photograph on the card was a good likeness for Mr. Ajanaku, it did not match the image held by the SIA. Furthermore, the licence number had been cancelled some months earlier after being reported lost.

Mr. Ajanaku used the details from a family member’s licence card to create a counterfeit with his own likeness. He did not engage with the SIA during the investigation and was then summonsed to appear at Bromley Magistrates’ Court as a result.

FIA | The former owner of an Indian restaurant in Watlington has been sentenced for multiple breaches of fire safety law that put lives at risk.

Mr Khalique Choudhury received a six-month custodial sentence, suspended for 18 months. He was also fined £1,700, ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work, and told to pay £6,284 in costs. His conviction followed an earlier hearing at Oxford Magistrates Court on 24 July 2025.

Fire safety inspectors from Oxfordshire County Council’s fire and rescue service visited the premises in March 2024. They found no adequate fire risk assessment, unprotected escape routes, and no working fire alarm or detection system. The restaurant was operating on the ground floor, with staff accommodation provided in bedrooms above.

Following a fire safety audit under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, inspectors judged the premises so dangerous that they immediately prohibited the use of the building for sleeping. Occupants were removed under a prohibition notice until essential safety measures could be put in place.

Mr Choudhury later appeared in court, where he pleaded guilty to four offences under fire safety legislation.

Councillor Jenny Hannaby, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Community Services and Safety, said: “The vast majority of Oxfordshire businesses operate to the highest standards, rightly protecting their customers, staff and their livelihoods. I’m very grateful to the officers in this case, who are out there every day not only to protect the public, but to also ensure that those businesses following the rules can compete on a level playing field.”

Jody Kerman, Head of Oxfordshire County Council’s Prevention, Protection and Trading Standards teams, added: “Our fire safety inspectors are finding an increasing number of businesses with sleeping accommodation above, where no fire safety measures have been implemented. Business owners have a legal duty to put fire safety measures in place, and as this case shows, we will not hesitate to take action to ensure the safety of occupants, residents and customers.”

The council has reminded business owners and employers that prohibition notices can be issued whenever accommodation fails to meet fire safety standards, and that they have a duty of care to provide safe and suitable premises.

HSE | Qube Containers Limited, which operates on Ipswich docks, has been fined £30,000 after an employee was run over and dragged by a forklift causing serious injuries to his ankle.

The HSE brought the prosecution following its investigation of the incident involving Harvey Addison, from Ipswich, on 11 December 2023.

Mr Addison was unloading cars from shipping containers at the company’s site in Ipswich. He was working with the driver of the forklift truck to empty two small bins, filled with waste packaging, including ratchet straps and chocks, into a larger commercial waste bin.

The two tipping bins had been positioned on a pallet, which was being carried on the forks of the forklift truck.

The 21-year-old was standing on the pallet and as the forklift truck moved some of the straps he fell from the full waste bins, trailing on the floor and getting caught in the wheels of the lift truck. One of these straps got caught on his foot pulling him to the ground and the forklift truck drove over his foot.

Mr Addison remained in hospital for nine days, requiring skin grafts on the outside of his left calf and behind his left thigh just above his knee. He also sustained a broken ankle.

The HSE’s investigation identified that Qube Containers Limited failed to provide equipment that was safe and suitable for the task and failed to risk assess the system of work for emptying the bins – which was found to be unsafe.

In addition, the HSE noted that the traffic routes were not organised in a safe manner, and it was clear from the work practices on site that vehicles and pedestrians circulated in close proximity.

Qube Containers Limited of Forbes Business Centre, Kempson Way, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. They were fined £30,000 and ordered to pay £3,752 in costs.

HSE Inspector Adepeju Sogadgi said: “This injury could easily have been prevented. Employers introducing new processes should make sure they assess the work activity sufficiently and apply effective control measures to minimise the risk. There should be systems in place to ensure safety and the risk should have been considered and documented.”

This HSE prosecution was brought by HSE enforcement lawyer Julian White and paralegal officer Hannah Snelling.

HSE | A construction company and its director have been fined after being found guilty of safety breaches that resulted in a five-year-old child being injured by a falling cast iron pipe.

Sage Homes Limited and its director were convicted for failing to properly assess a foreseeable risk.

The incident occurred on 20 July 2021, during building work on an extension to a house in Totton – a few seconds’ walk from a local primary school. A cast iron pipe fell onto a passing child striking him on the head and fracturing his skull.

The base of the pipe had been broken away by the builder some days before to allow him to excavate into the concrete floor. When a TV cable was freed from the pipe, the top two sections of pipe, weighing over 45kg, fell across the pavement. The cast iron pipe was estimated to date from the 1930s, and both the pipe and the fixings were corroded.

The HSE found that Sage Homes Limited and its director, Jason Scorey, had failed to properly assess what was a foreseeable risk. In giving evidence, Mr Scorey insisted that he could see no need to secure the pipe against the wall.

Sage Homes Limited and Jason Scorey were sentenced for breaches of Section 3(1) and Section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, respectively. Mr Scorey received a fine of £1,685, with 45 days’ imprisonment in default, and was ordered to pay costs of £10,436. Sage Homes Limited was fined £15,000. Both Mr Scorey and Sage Homes Limited were also ordered to pay a victim surcharge.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Alexander Ashen said: “Properly assessing risk to workers and members of the public is a vital part of any construction project.

“It would have been a simple and inexpensive task to secure the pipe once it had been broken out at its base. The fact that the construction work was being carried out yards from a school gate at the time parents were collecting their children should have prompted even more care on the part of the duty holder.

“This case should underline to everyone in the building trade that the courts, and HSE, take a failure to follow the regulations extremely seriously. HSE will not hesitate to take action against companies and their directors which do not do all that they should to keep people safe.”

This HSE prosecution was brought by HSE enforcement lawyer Rebecca Schwartz and paralegal officer, Melissa Wardle.

Environment Agency | A Merseyside skip hire boss has been ordered to pay back £250,000 after she was found to have profited from illegal waste crime.

The Environment Agency secured the confiscation order against Patricia Hills, 72, of Redfern Street, Bootle, after she was previously jailed for operating MWM Recycling Ltd illegally.

The confiscation hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act took place at Liverpool Crown Court.

Hills was given three months to pay the order, or she faces up to three years in jail. She was also ordered to pay £25,000 costs.

The hearing followed the conviction of Hills for illegal waste activity. At Liverpool Crown Court in March 2022, she was jailed for a year and banned from being a company director for five years.

In the original case, Mrs. Hills was in control of MWM Recycling Ltd. Following an extensive investigation by the Environment Agency, the company had its environmental permit revoked after a series of breaches and were issued with an enforcement notice to clear the land of waste.

Despite this, waste continued to be stored and illegally burned.

Hills’ son, Mark Hills, 48, of Redfern Street in Bootle, who ran the day-to-day site operations, was jailed for eight months.

The Environment Agency secured a confiscation order against him for £40,000 in December 2024, and this has since been paid.

Security Industry Authority | Daniel Street, the owner of DCS Security Services, has been convicted for failing to hold the required SIA licence for the role.

Mr. Street pleaded guilty to an offence under Section 3 of the Private Security Industry Act 2001 at a hearing in Leicester Magistrates’ Court.

Mr. Street was given a six-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay a £26 victim surcharge and £150 in costs, totalling £176, within 28 days.

SIA investigators had found Mr. Street working as a security operative at a venue in Leicester in November 2024. He denied that he was working there as security at the time, claiming he was only helping people park. Mr. Street, on behalf of DCS Security Services, denied providing security services at this site.

However, the venue’s management later confirmed that DCS Security Services did in fact have a contract to supply security to the venue.

Mr. Street had been the sole owner of DCS Security Services since July 2019, despite never having held an SIA licence as required by law. As a result, he was summonsed to attend Leicester Magistrates’ Court.

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