During a trial, for sustained fly tipping over a long period, forestry expert Tim Saunders changed his plea of not guilty, to one of guilty.
Tried in Hove County Court, Saunders, from Wittersham, finally pleaded guilty to three charges of dumping controlled waste in private woodland at Barnet’s Hill, Peasmarsh and allowing others to do the same.
The waste included items such as asbestos, barbed wire refrigerators and tyres Investigating officials also found an unspecified black liquid about four feet down, that caused them to feel ill, it was stated.
It was also alleged that Saunders charged to removed rubbish that he subsequently dumped on the site and also was paid by others to allow them to use the site as a dump.
Saunders did not own the land himself, and had been engaged by the woodland’s owner to carry out other legitimate forestry work, but between 2009 and 2015 had dumped, and allowed others to dump substantial quantities of waste. The jury were shown satellite photographs of the area indicating that what had initially been a forestry track had been turned into a deforested area of wasteland.
Following his change of plea, Saunders was given a suspended sentence of two years in prison, fined £1,000 and ordered to do 200 hours of community service.
The sentence was far too lenient going by the damage done to the environment, why was the sentence suspended? And why was he only fined £1,000, the amount he made from charging people to get rid of their waste and allowing them to dump it in this lovely environment far exceeds that amount, it’s not a sentence that is going to deter anyone from doing this in the future.
Perhaps if a more accurate reporting of this case were reported then a true reflection of why the sentence was supposedly lenient. I’m sure Mr Saunders would happily explain to a reporter from Rye News
Will he spend his paltry 200 hours clearing up the site??? Of course not.. that rubbish will just sit there for decades.
Accurate reporting??? Surely the bottom line is the same no matter what pathetic mitigation might be sought? He invited others, at a cost to participate in illegally dumping toxic waste over a 6 year period, hardly a one-off or rare occurrence… sorry… do you need more evidence? R.Ehrler is right…. nobody will be deterred if you willingly seek to illegally dump waste.
[NOTE – one word slightly edited to meet our comments policy]
It would be interesting to know under the freedom of information act, how much has this cost the taxpayers of Rother district.
It would be helpful if Mr Platt would explain his rather enigmatic posting. Is this story what is known these days as fake news? I think we should be told.