A MAYO man has been jailed in England for his part in a €1.5 million scheme to illegally dump thousands of tonnes of building waste, including asbestos, on public land.
Patrick Joseph Anderson (51), Clare Road, Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, was given a 22-month sentence yesterday by Inner London Crown Court for organising the dumping of an estimated 750 lorry-loads of waste.
Anderson and a British man James Kelleher (39) were described as “professional fly-tippers” after they pleaded guilty to conspiring to unlawfully deposit controlled waste on private land.
Kelleher was jailed for 14 months.
The court heard the pair were responsible for dumping more than 14,600 tonnes of rubbish from January 2003 to June 2004 at 15 sites across London and Essex on public and privately owned lands.
The most audacious incident involved posing as legitimate construction workers and stopping rush-hour traffic on the busy A406 North Circular road in London to unload a cargo of construction waste on a roadside verge. They disguised their illegal operations by using false names and by operating under the cover of a respectable business.
The clean-up bill to local councils was estimated at €420,000.
The UK’s Environment Agency used a European arrest warrant to extradite Anderson from Ireland. Owen Bolton, a senior environmental crime officer at the agency who led the investigation, said the activities would have netted the pair about €1.5 million. It was the first time the agency had used a European arrest warrant.
The agency confirmed traces of the dangerous material asbestos were found in the waste. It said the case highlighted how organised criminals were increasingly “blighting” the UK environment through the profitable crime of dumping industrial and construction waste.
Paul Leinster, the agency’s chief executive, said the ruling sent out a “clear message to those who think they can profit from illegal waste dumping that the Environment Agency is watching and will take every step possible to protect the environment and bring offenders to justice”.