A Newquay farmer has been ordered to pay £21,500 in conviction costs, a £72,000 confiscation order and around £250,000 in unpaid landfill tax after he was convicted of waste offences.
62-year-old William Salmon of Trevemper Farm, Trevemper, Newquay, pleaded guilty to two charges involving depositing waste on land he owned in Trerice near Newquay.
A wildlife haven and badger sett in an old quarry were damaged when Salmon dumped waste and excavation waste on the site.
The Newquay farmer was fined a total of £4,000 with £17,500 costs and ordered to pay £72,200.95 in a Proceeds of Crime Act confiscation, all to be paid within three months.
In addition, he is required to pay approximately £250,000 to HMRC for landfill tax costs he should have paid earlier for the waste, as well as paying his own legal costs.
Environment Agency
In the case brought by the Environment Agency, the court heard Salmon had created a track across farmland to gain access to a disused quarry.
The quarry had become overgrown over decades and had been reclaimed by wildlife, including badgers that had developed a long-established sett at the site.
Over several months, Salmon was responsible for infilling the quarry with construction waste and destroying the habitat that had developed there.
In the quarry, investigators found construction and demolition waste that Salmon was paid to dispose of, including burnt rubbish
Salmon had registered a U1 exemption – this allows the use of specific types and quantities of clean waste materials in construction.
Waste transfer notes supplied by Salmon indicated he had imported around 1,200t of waste brick and concrete from a site in Newquay to construct a track.
He told officers that the waste they had seen tipped into the quarry had come from his own farm and that he thought he did not need any permissions or paperwork for this.
However, Environment Agency investigators identified that construction and demolition waste had been imported from a housing development site for disposal at the site and that Salmon had been paid to take it away. Some waste had also been burnt there.
‘Misled a government agency’
Judge Carr told Salmon: “You took a deliberate decision to use a disused quarry to deposit waste in breach of the environmental permitting regime.
“When you were spoken to by the Environment Agency about the waste, you lied. The Environment Agency’s investigation into your finances opened a Pandora’s box.
“Once you have misled a government agency, do not be surprised if they look under every rock. You have learned an extremely expensive lesson by breaching the environmental regime.”
Richard Cloke of the Environment Agency said: “We won’t hesitate to go after those who break laws designed to protect the environment.
“In this case, Mr Salmon not only flouted the rules around disposal of waste, but he also did so with a flagrant disregard for wildlife.”
