A Meath man who breached court orders by removing waste materials from his land to an unlicensed dump was sent to prison by a High Court judge yesterday. Mr Justice Kelly said he wanted the word to go out that there would be "serious consequences" for people who disobeyed court orders in relation to illicit dumping.
Mr Oliver Corduff, Timoole, Rathfeigh, Tara, who told the court that he and his brothers ran building construction and quarrying businesses, was taken to Mountjoy Prison yesterday afternoon.
Mr Justice Kelly ordered that he be brought back before the court at 2 p.m. today, when he would consider the fine to be imposed.
Meath County Council had sought an order for the attachment and/or committal of Mr Corduff for failing to comply with the terms of court orders. The council claimed that the orders required Mr Corduff to stop dumping waste on his land at Timoole and to engage a consultant to carry out a hydrogeological assessment of the contamination of the lands. A council engineer, Ms Lara Fagan, said in an affidavit that the activities at the Tara site gave rise to ongoing environmental concerns, including pollution of ground waters, air pollution and contamination of soil.
Mr Justice Kelly said that Mr Corduff had accepted responsibility in January for what had been going on at Timoole. He took an oath and gave the court undertakings that he would remove within 14 days all material dumped at Timoole since September 2001; that there would be a cessation of further dumping; and that he would engage such a consultant. During the January hearing, it must have been abundantly clear to Mr Corduff, said the judge, that neither the council nor the court would regard his undertaking to remove the material from the Timoole site to another unauthorised site as being a sufficient compliance with his undertaking to the court.
It had been intimated to the court by Mr Corduff that his intention was to move the material to a site at Gormanston, but the council made it clear that it would not regard that site as having the appropriate licence issued by the Environment Protection Agency. The council's solicitors had sent a letter the day after the hearing stating that it had been clarified with the EPA that no licence was issued for the Gormanston site.
However, it was clear from evidence given by Mr Corduff that, notwithstanding the letter, he proceeded to dump. In so doing, he was fully aware that he would not be in accord with the obligations undertaken by him on oath. He had also told the court he was aware there were 20 to 30 sites in Co Meath authorised to receive waste, but he would have the court believe that, although involved in this business, he was not aware of the location of any one of the sites.
"I frankly do not believe that evidence," the judge said. He was unimpressed by the approach of Mr Corduff, who appeared to display little contrition and apologised only when under some pressure. He was satisfied that there had been contempt of court and could not let it go unpunished.
The council did not seek to have the dumped material "disinterred", because it believed that this could do even more damage, and it had asked the court to impose a substantial fine. To bring home to Mr Corduff the seriousness of his position, the judge said that, as well as a fine, he would make an order committing him to prison.