Nine people have been sentenced for the operation of an illegal waste site in rural Lincolnshire, hiding the evidence physically and behind a screen of falsified paperwork.
The defendants were sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court to a collective 11 years of imprisonment, including three family members who controlled the illegal waste site at Long Bennington alongside the A1 between Newark and Grantham.
- Paul Canner, 53, of Main Road, Bilstone, Nuneaton, was sentenced to 26 months’ immediate imprisonment.
- His wife Judith Canner, 55,of the same address was sentenced to 16 months’ immediate imprisonment.
- Their son Joshua Canner, 29, of Laburnum Avenue, Newbold Verdon was sentenced to 16 months’ immediate imprisonment.
- Sonial Surpal, 52 of Round House Road, Coventry, was sentenced to 13 months’ immediate imprisonment.
- Luke Woodward, 37, of Willow Road, Nuneaton, was sentenced to 11 months’ immediate imprisonment.
- Marcus Chapman, 39, of Egmanton Drive, Mansfield, was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment, suspended for 18 months. He has been ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work.
- Peter Wainwright, 32, of Dexter Lane, Hurley, Atherstone, Warwickshire, was sentenced to 16 months’ immediate imprisonment.
- Nathan Jones, 43, of Carnation Road, Shirebrook, Mansfield, was sentenced to 16 months’ immediate imprisonment.
- Daniel Lippitt, 55, of Lubbersthorpe Road, Leicester, was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment, suspended for 18 months. He has been ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work.
- Landowners James Baggeley, 38, of Back Lane, Foston, and Marc Greenfield, 46, of Fosse Road, Brough, will be sentenced on 16 December 2024, as will Robert Malone, 41, of Ribble Prospect, Clitheroe, the sole director of NWR 2004 Limited, and Fletcher Plant Limited, the latter two after proceeds of crime investigations have been completed.
Environment Agency officers conducted a raid on the site in April 2020 with Lincolnshire Police. Intelligence revealed lorry-loads of shredded waste were regularly being accepted onto the site the size of a football pitch.
Waste was burned daily and buried. This activity intensified during the first Coronavirus lockdown in March 2020, and so action was taken to bring it to a halt.
Environment Agency officers also seized an excavator and a lorry which were actively depositing more waste at the site when officers arrived. Two arrests were made.
The prosecution was brought against individuals that ran the illegal waste site; burned the waste; drove waste to the site and the landowners. Two waste brokers were also prosecuted.
