Waste boss fined £1.1m after fly-tipping at 16 different sites across the country

The scheme was uncovered after an investigation by the Environment Agency uncovered a network of 16 illegal dumping sites, stretching from the northeast to the south coast.

Farms, a historic manor house and a nature reserve were among the locations where tonnes of trash was dumped illegally.

Varun Datta ran a waste company called Atkins Recycling, and claimed all the rubbish his firm handled was being sent to a legal site at Kiveton Park in Sheffield.

However, the lorry loads full of waste were actually diverted to 16 different sites around the country where it would be dumped illegally.

These included the former Sulzer Dowding Mills Factory site in Middlesbrough, as well as the Middleton Nature Reserve in Lancashire.

In 2018, the Environment Agency seized £131,520 in cash from Datta’s home address. In 2022, a restraint order was applied to two bank accounts ensuring that any future confiscation order could be paid.

After pleading not guilty in 2023, Datta pleaded guilty in June 2025 to knowingly causing controlled waste to be deposited at sixteen sites. The total weight of the waste was around 4,275 tonnes.

Datta, of Little Chester Street, London, was fined more than £1.1 million and ordered to pay £100,000 in compensation and £200,000 in prosecution costs.

The 36-year-old was also given a four month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, as well as 30 days’ rehabilitation and 200 hours of unpaid work.

The fines come following a court case which concluded at Birmingham Crown Court on February 13, and involved four other men.

The offences were branded “reckless” by Judge Paul Farrar KC. “Smell and flies were a feature at some of the illegal sites and caused a localised adverse effect to air quality,” he said, with landowners “forced to incur substantial costs in removing the illegal waste.”

Mohammed Saraji Bashir, 45, of Windmill Street, Peterborough, had pleaded guilty on June 3, 2025 for knowingly causing controlled waste to be deposited at three sites.

He was also given a four-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months, and must also complete 30 days of rehabilitation activity and 200 hours of unpaid work.

Robert William McAllister, 55, of Iveagh Close, Northwood, London, had pleaded guilty on November 7, 2024 for failing to comply with the duty of care imposed on brokers of waste, in relation to controlled waste that was deposited at two sites. He was fined £750.

Warrants for Sandeep Golechha, 53, of Wheatley Close, London, and Jason Newman, of no fixed abode, are still active.

No environmental permit or valid exemption was in place at any of the sites, which were spread across Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Lancashire, Kent, Surrey, Rutland and Middlesborough.

Emma Viner, enforcement and investigations manager in the Environment Agency's National Environmental Crime Unit, said: “We are glad to see the perpetrators brought to justice in this appalling case.

“Despite their attempts to conceal their criminality, our in-depth investigation spanning the length and breadth of the country ultimately uncovered those responsible.

“We will never stop fighting to end the scourge of waste crime which scars our environment and communities.”

Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds said: "This is a shocking case of illegal waste dumping, orchestrated by a group of shameless crooks who thought they could operate above the law.

"I welcome the punishments secured by the Environment Agency - which send a clear message to criminals that they have nowhere to hide.

"This government is committed to stamping out this type of criminality across the country by boosting funds to tackle waste crime and introducing tougher checks and penalties for those who break the law."