A West Sussex Man has been handed an eight-month prison sentence (suspended for two years), given a three-month curfew, and ordered to pay costs of £800, after being ound guilty of running an illegal landfill site in Walberton.

Gary Boucher was prosecuted at Worthing Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday (21 January) as part of Operation Mosaic, an ongoing multi-agency initiative that includes the Environment Agency (EA), the police, local authorities and environmental organisations, which targets waste crime in the Chichester district and areas across the Solent.

Despite being warned by EA officers about his unlawful activities in 2012, the court heard that Boucher continued to run the open landfill site at Cherry Tree Nursery without the relevant permits.

First ever ‘Stop Notice’ issued in England

As well as burning waste such as old TVs, electrical items, and furniture, EA officers found ‘piles of household waste in black bin bags’, old tyres, and asbestos around the disused nursery site, on which Boucher lived.

However, when interviewed, Boucher gave a statement outlining that tradesmen were responsible for dumping the waste and that because of threats to him and his animals he had been forced to allow them to do so.

He argued that the activity had stopped following the EA warning and that the majority of rubbish was in the process of being cleared. However, on a later visit, EA officers found evidence of new activities and thus issued Boucher with a ‘Stop Notice’ (under Section 46 of the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008) to cease all activities and stop burning waste on site, because of the ‘threat of significant harm to human health and the environment’. This was reportedly the first notice of its kind to be used in England.

Despite this, the court heard that Boucher continued to operate the site and was then taken to court.

On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to 11 offences and was given an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for two years. In addition, he was given a curfew order to remain indoors between 7pm and 7am to last for three months and ordered to pay costs of £800.

‘Absolutely no hesitation in prosecuting’

Nigel Oliver of the Environment Agency said: “It is very disappointing that Mr. Boucher continued to ignore our repeated warnings. We seriously questioned the suggestion put forward by Mr. Boucher that this waste was deposited by tradesmen, considering the duration of the activity and the quantities involved.

“The sheer amounts of material deposited and the clear hazard posed by the presence of asbestos must have been clear to him. If this was a genuine story, he should have reported it to us straight away so that we could take action.

“Operation Mosaic is an ongoing initiative and the net is closing in on people who think they can make easy money undercutting legitimate waste businesses by putting the local environment at risk. We are constantly gathering information on illegal waste sites, criminal activities and environmental crime in the Chichester district and across the Solent.

“Together with our partners we are taking a zero tolerance approach against offenders. In cases like this where individuals consistently operate illegally, we have absolutely no hesitation in prosecuting them as we want to make sure that waste crime doesn’t pay.”

Last month, Neil Harrison, the owner and Director of an Isle of Wight demolition company, Ryde Demolition, was fined £500 after being caught tipping six tonnes of asbestos waste onto Boucher’s site on 13 December 2012.

Read more about prosecutions under Operation Mosaic, or how the Environment Agency tackles waste crime.