00:00The man at the centre of a complex fly-tipping network that spanned from Margate to Lancashire has been ordered
00:05to pay over $1.4 million in fines and compensation for illegally dumping over 4,000 tonnes of waste across
00:12the country.
00:12I spoke with Emma Viner, Enforcement and Investigations Manager at the Environment Agency about the case.
00:17Yes, so this was a complex investigation that revealed 16 sites linked to the offending group.
00:26So the role those that were prosecuted played, they played the role of a broker.
00:30So they would contact waste producers, they would ask to take their waste away, they would tell them it was
00:36going to a legitimate site, and then it would ultimately be deposited at one of these illegal sites.
00:41Varun Datta of Belgravia, London, brokered illegal waste dumping at the Westwood Industrial Estate in Margate, which caught fire in
00:492018, after over 6,000 bales of household and construction waste were left to rot in the warehouse.
00:55At the height of a blaze, we had 14 fire engines, each fire engine carrying a crew of four at
01:00the height of a blaze.
01:01Rapidly, we reduced that down to around eight fire engines, and to date now we've got three fire engines at
01:06the scene.
01:06It's likely that we'll have three fire engines that were seen during most daytimes until the end of this week.
01:11The fire burned for 25 days, and the extra costs of hiring a contractor and specialist equipment to deal with
01:16the blaze exceeded £160,000.
01:20The men operating the warehouse, David Weeks and Lee Brooks, were ordered to pay just over £6,000 in legal
01:27costs and victim surcharges combined.
01:29And all of the men found guilty in this case were given suspended prison sentences.
01:34I asked the Environment Agency whether these sentences were enough to deter criminals from fly tipping.
01:40Over a million pounds, that is a substantial amount of money, so that will send a deterrent out that if
01:45you make money from this type of offending, we will go after that money and we will take it off
01:50you.
01:50It may sound like a significant sum of money, but clean-up costs can often be much higher.
01:55However, the Environment Agency estimated it will cost £15 million to clean up the 30,000 tons of waste at
02:01another of Kent's infamous fly tipping sites, Hodes Wood in Ashford.
02:06Tessa Delaunay-Martin for KMTV.
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