A man has been fined for dumping 160 tonnes of waste in Gerrards Cross.
John Stride, 56, of Epping, was sentenced to 120 hours of unpaid community service work and ordered to pay £4,000 costs and a victim surcharge of £85 at Reading Magistrates’ Court. This came after Stride pleaded guilty at Slough Magistrates’ Court on October 20 to causing his company to dump approximately 160 tonnes – similar to the weight of a Boeing 787 aircraft – of waste at a closed landfill site in Gerrards Cross.
Howard McCann, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, told the court that vehicles belonging to Stride’s company, Orion Support Services Ltd, illegally dumped around eight lorry loads at Veolia UK’s Wapsey Wood landfill site over the bank holiday weekend of May 26 to 29, 2018.
The waste was part of a larger illegal dump of more than 600 tonnes at the closed site over that weekend. After increasing their security, Veolia UK thwarted another attempt to dump more waste at the site from Mr Stride’s and other vehicles the following weekend.
Stride was the sole director of Orion Support Services Ltd, a company which specialised in construction waste management, providing skips to commercial and residential customers. The company was dissolved in December 2019.
During a complex investigation, the Environment Agency Crime Team used information from Veolia UK, including CCTV footage and vehicle tracking data, to trace the dumped waste back to Stride’s company vehicles and his site in Canning Town.
Stride admitted in an interview that he was responsible for the waste being dumped at the site. He also admitted that items found in the waste were likely to be from waste processed at his company’s site in Canning Town.
Barry Russell, environment manager at the Environment Agency, said: “Through our officers’ investigations, this prosecution sends out a strong signal to others that we will continue to fight tirelessly to combat illegal waste crime and bring those responsible to justice.
“We all create waste, and we all have a responsibility to ensure our waste is handled correctly. Businesses and householders also need to do everything possible to ensure that waste doesn’t end up in the hands of operators who break the law by checking the online register Waste carriers, brokers and dealers.
“To help us take enforcement action, like we have in this case, we encourage legitimate waste operators and the public to report any suspicious waste operations on 0800 807060.”
Photo credit: Environment Agency
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