A local man and one who came over the border from Cambridgeshire and dumped commercial waste on land near King’s Lynn and caught by CCTV and a drone camera have been punished by the courts.
Phillip Moore, who ran a landscaping business only a few miles from the site in Clenchwarton, has been fined £600 by magistrates. Fred Harris, a roofer from near Cambridge, was given 100 hours of unpaid work to complete.
Both men were ordered to pay substantial costs.
Clockcase Lane includes 15 hectares of land close to the Great River Ouse. Farmland and residential housing are also nearby.
Moore was the first to offend. A covert drone camera was already trained on the site in 2022 as the Environment Agency investigated other reports of waste crime.
Gardener visited illegal waste site twice
In the September, despite the site being out of bounds through a court order, Moore made the first of 2 visits. A white and grey tipper truck was driven onto the muddy area, with Moore at the wheel. Moore’s Groundworks and Landscaping was clearly written on the side.
The surveillance camera recorded wooden pallets unloaded from the back of the van and dumped. The vehicle then left.
Some six weeks later, in late October, the same truck returned. Someone got out of the passenger side and unloaded garden waste from the back and put it down on the land.
The vehicle was then driven to another area and a wooden pallet was dumped on top of others. The van then left.
When questioned by the Environment Agency, Moore, of West Winch, claimed he thought Clockcase Lane was a legitimate site on which to discard waste, paying a third party £10 for each visit.
Moore was also told by King’s Lynn magistrates’ court on 13 August to pay £2,000 in costs, and a victim surcharge of £240.
Phil Henderson, environment management team leader for East Anglia at the Environment Agency, said:
“Moore and Harris should have known better as local businessmen producing a lot of waste through their work. Both men were negligent in not checking the legality of Clockcase Lane as a waste site.
“Waste crime blights communities. It harms the environment, having a devastating effect on rivers and wildlife. We continue to investigate Clockcase Lane.”
A few months after Moore’s illegal visits, Fred Harris also dumped waste there and, like Moore, had no authority to do so.
In March 2023, CCTV footage from a nearby property caught Harris, of Swavesey, near Cambridge, arrive in a white van pulling a trailer. Armour Roofing and Construction Ltd, which Harris operated, was on the side.
Van dumping waste got stuck in the mud
The film later showed household waste being removed from it and left on a muddy track. The van got stuck in the mud, and Harris was seen unhooking the trailer. He eventually drove off.
Like Moore before him, Harris believed Clockcase Lane to be a permitted waste site. He told the Environment Agency he paid a third party £100 to gain access to the land.
Harris, 46, of Rose and Crown Road, Swavesey, was sentenced to 100 hours of unpaid work. King’s Lynn magistrates’ court also ordered to pay £1,000 in costs and another £114 as a victim surcharge.
Philip Moore, 32, of Long Lane, West Winch, pleaded guilty to twice breaching section 33(1)(a) (6) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, in that he dumped waste on land at Clockcase Road, Clenchwarton, on 8 September and 21 October 2022 without the necessary Environment Agency permit.
Harris admitted breaching the charge of dumping waste illegally on Clockcase Lane on 2 March 2023, contrary to section 33(1)(a) and (6) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, as amended.
Rebecca Simper, of Saddlebow Road, Saddlebow, in Norfolk, will appear before King’s Lynn magistrates next May relating to other waste allegedly dumped at Clockcase Lane in April 2023 and January 2024, and failing to provide information to the Environment Agency in the course of its investigation. She denies all the charges.
The Environment Agency continues to investigate alleged waste crime at Clockcase Lane.
Anyone who suspects waste crime can report it to the Environment Agency’s 24-hour incident hotline, 0800 807060, or to CrimeStoppers on 0800 555111.
Journalists only: 0800 917 9250 or communications_se@environment-agency.gov.uk.
