Hertfordshire man ordered to repay £53,000 made from illegal waste dumping
Investigators said the amount of illegal rubbish at the landfill site could have filled the Albert Hall three times over.
A man involved in illegally dumping vast amounts of waste at a quarry in Hertfordshire has been ordered to repay almost £53,000 or face jail.
Mark Winters, 51, of Loverock Crescent, Rugby, received a 12-month suspended prison sentence after admitting his role in burying harmful waste at Codicote Quarry, near Stevenage.
He now faces two years in prison if he does not pay back £52,872.90 following a proceeds of crime order handed down at Luton Crown Court.
The illegal waste stored at the site included electrical items, car parts, furniture, and packaging, with investigators estimating the volume could have filled the Albert Hall three times over.
The scam, which spanned several years, saw lorries carry and dump potentially hazardous materials at Codicote Quarry as well as at another quarry in Anstey and a firing range in Nuthampstead, south of Royston. Soil was used to cover the waste at the sites to avoid detection.
Winters’ younger brother, former teacher Liam Winters, 48, also of Rugby, played a central role in the scam. He was jailed for 17 months in 2023 and previously ordered to repay profits totalling nearly £79,000.
Both brothers are banned from being company directors for eight years. Mark Winters was also ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work.
Codicote Quarry Ltd, the company linked to the site, was fined £1,000 and given a victim surcharge of £187 for exceeding the conditions of its permit, which only allowed limited storage and treatment of soil waste.
The stored waste, totalling over 200,000 cubic metres of harmful biodegradable materials, has left Codicote Quarry requiring years of environmental monitoring to prevent pollution to nearby water sources, including the River Mimram.