Northern Ireland’s Department of the Environment (DOE) has undertaken two searches for illegally buried waste in County Derry as part of ‘Operation Toothfish’.
Carried out by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency’s (NIEA) Environmental Crime Unit with assistance from the Police Service Northern Ireland (PSNI) yesterday (16 September), the searches involved ‘intrusive inspections’ where waste was suspected of being buried illegally.
According to DOE, ‘a quantity’ of waste was found at the two sites, however the department has said that as further investigations will be necessary, it could not provide more detailed information ‘at this stage’.
Speaking yesterday, an NIEA official said: “The Waste Crime Task Force within the DOE has moved decisively today to tackle unlawful waste activity. Today’s successful find is part of a wider Northern Ireland ongoing operation. Waste crime is a scourge and must be robustly tackled. We continue to do this.”
The searches form part of a crackdown on environmental criminality in Northern Ireland; last week NIEA brought a case against Martin Mallon (57) for storing waste without the necessary permits.
According to NIEA, officers had visited the site between September 2012 and January 2013 and found a ‘substantial’ amount of waste tyres being stored illegally.
Dugannon Magistrates’ Court fined Mallon £1,000 on 9 September for two breaches of waste management legislation: one charge of keeping controlled waste without holding the necessary waste management licence and one charge of failing to comply with a direction issued by the Department of the Environment (DOE). Mallon was also ordered to pay £75 in court costs.
Anyone with information on waste or environmental crims is asked to contact the Environmental Crime Unit on (028) 9056 9453 or by contacting Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
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