Environment Agency | A transport company will pay a total of £167,587.13 for delivering controlled waste to an illegal site at Fen Lane, Long Bennington, Lincolnshire.
The sentence imposed on Fletcher Plant Limited of Clement Street, Sheffield, is the latest result from a major investigation by the Environment Agency.
At Nottingham Crown Court, the company was fined £80,000, ordered to pay costs of £50,000 and a confiscation order of £37,587.13 for its breach of the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016.
The company had previously been found guilty in June 2024 after a trial of failing to comply with duty of care regulations for controlled waste between 1 October 2019 and 1 May 2020.
Named ‘Operation Lord’, the investigation saw Environment Agency officers spend months building evidence of the illegal waste site.
The findings led to 12 people and one company, Fletcher Plant, being charged, of which 10 pleaded guilty.
Following an eight-week trial, the remaining three defendants were found guilty.
So far, 11 people have been sentenced to a total of 14 years’ imprisonment for their involvement in this illegal operation.
The court was told that intelligence gathered, revealed lorry-loads of shredded waste were regularly being accepted onto the site the size of a football pitch.
It was calculated that Fletcher Plant, over a period of six months, organised the transport of over 1,400 tonnes of controlled waste.
The judge accepted that the company did not know the site was operating illegally, but its officers had a legal requirement to carry out a duty of care.
The company said it had built a good reputation, and it was the first time it had been prosecuted in over 40 years. A new management team has also been put in place.
