Environment Agency secures its first Criminal Behaviour Order

The Environment Agency has secured its first Criminal Behaviour Order, against a self-employed builder who dumped illegal waste in a field in Somerset on numerous occasions.

Bernard Molloy, aged 53, of Shepton Beauchamp, admitted at Taunton Crown Court to transporting, depositing and transferring waste to Wall Ditch Lane, Merriot, Somerset.

Under the terms of the five-year CBO Molloy must not collect, carry, transport or deposit any waste in the course of his or any other business. It also states that he must not use any vehicle to collect, carry, transport or deposit waste as a business.

The last term of the CBO states that he must not enter on foot or in a vehicle Wall Ditch Lane or the field where waste was dumped.

If the order is breached, Molloy will risk a prison sentence of up to five years.

Molloy was also ordered to carry out 150 hours' community service and to pay £2,500 towards the investigation costs.

The defendant was questioned by police after his flat-bed Ford Transit was seen travelling to and from the field.

Several people had seen him driving down the lane fully-laden with builders rubble, kitchen units, fridges and freezers. His journeys to the site were usually early in the morning.

According to the Environment Agency, Molloy was filmed arriving at the field with waste and leaving unladen, He was also filmed burning waste.

A local dog walker said he saw the flat-bed Transit on at least 20 occasions. It usually returned back up the lane empty around 30 minutes later. He did not see any other vehicle carrying waste down Wall Ditch Lane.

On 19 August 2014 Environment Agency officers visited the site and saw it was covered in piles of domestic and business waste. The site did not have a waste permit.

A number of people whose names were on documents found in black bin bags were contacted and asked how their waste ended up in the field, which was accessed via a padlocked gate.

When questioned, Molloy said he was in the ‘waste clearing business’ and admitted tipping rubble and hardcore in the field to make a track. He also admitted he did not have a waste carriers licence.

However, the defendant denied tipping any other waste at the site and claimed he had had to change the lock on the field gate several times, implying other people had entered and tipped waste at the site.

Appearing before Taunton Crown Court, Bernard Molloy pleaded guilty to depositing controlled waste including rubble, timber, electrical items and various mixed and commercial waste in a field located off Wall Ditch Lane, Merriott, without an environmental permit, between June 1 and December 18, 2014. This was contrary to Regulations 12(1) and 38(1)(a) of the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2010.

Molloy was also convicted of illegally burning waste in a manner likely to cause pollution or harm to human health and transporting controlled waste without a waste carriers licence, both offences under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.