Dorset farmer prosecuted for waste crime

A Dorset farmer has pleaded guilty and been given a six-month suspended prison sentence for burning rubbish. David House, who had previously been convicted of assaulting an Environment Agency officer, […]

A Dorset farmer has pleaded guilty and been given a six-month suspended prison sentence for burning rubbish.

David House, who had previously been convicted of assaulting an Environment Agency officer, is also banned from working in the waste industry for five years after the illegal activity at French’s Farm near Poole.

Environment Agency officers visited the site on the 17th of August 2015 to find the tenant farmer hadn’t complied with a formal notice to remove illegal domestic and commercial waste they had discovered on a previous visit.

Inquiries revealed he had been disposing of waste by burning at the site since 2013, with evidence of 64 fires during a five-year period.

He agreed to clear the site within a month but waste fires soon started again. Despite being told not to, Mr House spread the ash, which contained arsenic, cadmium and lead, across his land.

An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “We tried to work with Mr House to rectify issues and to ensure he was operating within the law but to no avail.

“We will prosecute those willingly found flouting the law by undertaking illegal activity and causing harm to the environment and human health.”

Latest Podcast