Criminal gangs ruining environment, says watchdog

Organised criminal groups are targeting the waste industry and "wreaking havoc" on the environment, according to the Environment Agency (EA).

Government figures suggest illegal waste tipping costs the country £1bn a year.

In the South East, a number of sites have sprung up in recent years where large scale tipping has taken place. Industry experts say this is not just fly-tipping, but "organised crime" where "networks of people" are illegally collecting and dumping waste.

"Many of these criminals have international connections, using the waste industry to launder money and fuel other illegal activities," said Phil Davies, head of the Joint Unit for Waste Crime at the EA.

The EA, which is responsible for waste regulation in England, said it was working closely with the local authorities and the police to bring those responsible to justice.

Mr Davies said: "Organised criminal groups target the waste industry by undercutting legitimate businesses and wreak havoc on our environment.

"Over the past five years, we've built strong partnerships and launched operations to combat these threats. Our commitment is unwavering and we're working across agencies to bring these criminals to justice and safeguard our environment."

Industry experts say what fuels the illegal trade is low risk, high reward - and that investigators are "playing whack-a-mole". As soon as they close down one illegal site, another one often appears.

Independent waste regulation specialist John Galvin said there was "a great deal of money to be saved" by not going to a proper site and paying landfill tax.

"Once upon a time one was chasing illegal operators, individuals, but over the years it's become much bigger business," he said.

"It's now part of organised crime where networks of people are illegally collecting waste or those within the industry are perhaps handling it initially quite lawfully and then managing to lose it at the last or exporting it illegally abroad."

Dr Tom Roberts, senior lecturer on environmental sociology at the University of Surrey, said even when people are prosecuted the penalties are "very small" - a maximum of £20,000.

He added that when you compare the fine to penalties for other forms of organised crime "they're not a huge deterrent".

I have spent many months investigating this illicit trade and found:

• Often it is planned and managed - and diggers are frequently brought onto sites to manoeuvre the waste.
• So brazen are some of the perpetrators, they use tipper lorries for transportation.
• Some areas of countryside have been reduced to wasteland as a result of the conduct of some individuals.
• The criminal business undercuts legitimate waste disposal with perpetrators avoiding paying landfill tax.

When we launched our drone over land in north Kent, there were beautiful views across the River Medway and its marshes. But our camera also captured a tipper lorry emptying its load onto piles of waste.

The site is the idyllically-named Raspberry Hill Park Farm, near the village of Iwade. A digger tucked into the dumped piles and loaded a trailer, which was then pulled across a vast expanse of mucky wet ground by a tractor.

In April 2024 I watched even more worrying scenes. Huge lorries dumping directly onto the ground amid a sea of waste, as birds scavenged.

Zoomed-in images showed the waste had been shredded and contained plastics.

Andrew Higham, former head of the EA's National Environmental Crime Team, said: "You can see from the nature of it, certainly from those shots, that it doesn't appear to have been treated in any way that complies with environmental legislation.

"There could be carcinogenic stuff in there. There could be all sorts of stuff in there that could be highly toxic and dangerous to handle. Even clinical waste could be in that. It could be anything."

Legitimate waste disposal operations have a permit from the EA or an exemption from needing one. From our investigations it appears that Raspberry Hill Park Farm has neither.

It is one of a number of large scale illegal waste sites in Kent being investigated by the EA in connection with waste crime and organised crime.

I wanted to know where the waste is coming from so I followed the blue tipper lorry that I had earlier watched dumping its load at Raspberry Hill Park Farm.

It left the village of Iwade and headed south west. Turning off the main road, I tailed it along a narrow country lane into the village of Stockbury where it turned into a site called All Skips Ltd.

Our drone camera captured the same lorry being reloaded and we followed it back to Raspberry Hill Park Farm where it tipped again. I watched several lorry loads being tipped that day.

According to Companies House, All Skips Ltd was taken over by Taylor James McQuade on 15 October 2024, three days before we filmed the lorry arriving and leaving the site.

Mr McQuade said in a statement to the BBC: "Unfortunately this came with a very large backlog of waste and other various problems to which I am gradually working through which is why your drones have picked up larger than usual amounts of rubbish in this yard and as you can appreciate it will take time to get this business back to some sort of normality."

I have discovered the site does not have any form of planning permission from the local planning authorities, but Mr McQuade said: "I am working and being monitored very closely by the Environment Agency and Maidstone council to whom I am paying commercial rates for this waste transfer site, in order to improve it moving forward."

He added: "I am not responsible for where our recycled products go once they leave the yard on a customer's vehicle."

Mr McQuade has now resigned his position with the company, although he says he is still involved in the day-to-day running of the site.

I have learned the EA and local authorities are now investigating the company.

The land owner of Raspberry Hill Park Farm is Jacqueline Ann Shilling. Her husband Michael Shilling was prosecuted and fined in 2022 for illegally dumping waste.

We approached them for comment, but had no reply.

During the months of our investigation, I have seen several different lorries tipping their loads at Raspberry Hill Park Farm. The waste could have come from a variety of locations.

A report by the EA in 2023 said: "A fifth of all waste produced in England may be illegally managed - that's approximately 34 million tonnes every year across England, enough to fill four million skips.

"Industry research suggests waste crime costs the English economy £1 billion every year through evaded tax, environmental and social harm and lost legitimate business."

The agency is investigating a number of illegal waste sites across Kent including at Hoads Wood near Ashford, Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey, and Swanton Lane near Canterbury.

Meanwhile, the owner of another illegal site near Rochester - where thousands of tonnes of waste have been dumped - has been ordered to clear it.

In 2022 and 2023, local people spoke of a steady stream of lorries arriving at the four-acre site in Borstal.

I witnessed numerous lorries tipping there myself. They included skip loads of what looked like household or builders' waste, as well as finer waste that included plastics. A digger methodically spread it out, compacting it as it worked.

Medway Council issued an enforcement notice to the landowner John Treeby in December 2022, ordering him to clear the site. He appealed, but in January a Government planning inspector rejected the appeal and he was told again to clear it.

Mr Treeby did not respond to our latest request for comment, however in March 2024 a spokesperson said he had been a "victim of a land grab" at a time of serious illness and difficult personal circumstances but that he had "not given anyone permission to tip on his land".

He added that local residents did "not understand his situation".

The EA said investigations were "complex" and involved the agency, the police and local authorities.

Matt Higginson, from the EA, said it was "a challenge".

"These people are well resourced," he said. "They have a lot of money. They can move at pace and at scale and we have to use our intelligence and work with partners to try and nip that in the bud and stop it as soon as possible where we can, and then bring people to justice where we catch them."

One of the most high profile cases is Hoads Wood, near Ashford. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, but an estimated 30,000 tonnes of waste was dumped there between the summer of 2023 and January 2024, when EA closed the site down.

When I visited, just before it was closed, I was shocked. This wasn't opportunistic fly tipping. It was clearly organised, with residents telling me 20-30 lorries were arriving by the day. They told me trees had been felled in advance, presumably to make way for the operation.

The EA has now appointed a contractor to clear the site, however Ian Rickards from Kent Wildlife Trust said: "The damage from this is going to be devastating.

"The ground flora, the fungi, the micro-ryzomes, the trees, the species living in it, all will be destroyed, devastated."

If I hire a skip, is it possible to make sure my waste will be disposed of in the proper way?

There are checks that I can carry out online to find out if the company I choose has a waste carrier's licence, but waste can go through a chain of other handlers for processing and government figures suggest nearly 20% of all waste operators are thought to engage in illegal activity.

Andrew Higham, former head of the EA's National Environmental Crime Team, said: "If you've picked a waste carrier, a skip company off the internet or wherever, it's extremely difficult for you to be assured that your waste will be disposed of in a legal manner."