Two men have been sentenced for allowing the operation of an illegal waste site on their land in rural Lincolnshire, and doing nothing to prevent it.
Marc Greenfield and James Baggaley are owners of the illegal waste site on Fen Lane, Long Bennington, and were sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court.
Greenfield (46) was sentenced to 19 months in prison, and Baggaley (39) was sentenced to 20 months in prison, both suspended for 18 months. They have also been ordered to remove the waste from their land by September 2025, at an estimated cost of £2.5 million.
They are the latest defendants to be sentenced in the case, bringing the total so far to 11 people, including three family members who controlled the illegal waste site.
Sentencing them, His Honour Judge Coupland found that their offending was deliberate: they both lied to residents and tried to conceal the activity, while Greenfield also lied to investigators. The judge found that the highest level of harm had been caused, with the site changing from a grassed area to a ‘smoking wasteland’ which put nearby residents at harm from toxic fumes.
The investigation, named Operation Lord, saw Environment Agency officers spend months building a picture of evidence of the illegal waste site. Intelligence revealed lorry-loads of shredded waste were regularly being accepted onto the site the size of a football pitch. Waste was burned daily and buried. This activity intensified during the first Coronavirus lockdown in March 2020, and so action was taken to bring it to a halt.
Environment Agency officers conducted a raid on the site in April 2020 with Lincolnshire Police. Two arrests were made, and they seized an excavator and a lorry which were actively depositing more waste at the site when officers arrived.
Leigh Edlin, Area Director for Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, said: “This was a serious illegal waste site which was highly organised and involved multiple offenders. Those involved sought to profit from Covid restrictions at the cost of the environment and by inflicting misery on the local community. The site and its operators had a major impact on legitimate businesses and our regulatory work.
“Our enforcement teams will continue to tackle serious illegal waste crime by working with partners such as Lincolnshire Police, fire services and councils, as we did in this case to hold those responsible to account.”
