Environment Agency’s Operation Grape concludes with four guilty pleas – Dan Thomas prosecutes

Dan Thomas (instructed by the Environment Agency) successfully prosecuted three individuals and one organisation for offences of depositing controlled waste and operating a regulated facility otherwise than in accordance with an environmental permit, contrary to the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010.

After a covert investigation spanning 10-months, Matthew Brown, Richard Ambrus, Gary Bolton and Clarke Transport Limited all pleaded guilty prior to the 4-week trial commencing.

The evidence at trial would have involved the presentation and interpretation by the Prosecution of expert evidence pertaining to soil pollution, water pollution in Groundwater Source Protection Zones and landfill gas emissions.

Matthew Brown pleaded guilty to operating a regulated facility at Carr Farm, Milnrow, Rochdale. Clarke Transport Limited, a road haulage operator, pleaded guilty to knowingly causing or permitting the deposit of such controlled waste at Carr Farm. Mr. Ambrus and Mr. Bolton, both HGV drivers, pleaded guilty to the actual deposit of such controlled waste at the farm.

At sentence, the Judge concluded that the level of Harm fell at the top end of the Category 2 bracket. Mr. Brown received a prison sentence of 10 weeks imprisonment suspended for 12 months in a rare example of a custodial sentence being imposed for offending of Reckless Culpability.