Newton Abbot Magistrates’ Court has ordered Devon waste carrier David Gorton to pay £17,527 after he deposited 1,368 tonnes of soil and stone at an illegal site near Kingsteignton. The offending took place between 19 July 2018 and 16 May 2019, during a period when he was operating as a registered waste carrier. The Environment Agency said Gorton pleaded guilty to two offences under the Environmental Protection Act 1990: depositing controlled waste without the required environmental permit and failing to comply with the statutory duty of care that applies to waste carriers.
The court’s order combined punishment with recovery of financial gain. Gorton was fined £1,466, ordered to repay £12,300 described as the economic benefit of the illegal activity, and told to pay the Environment Agency’s costs of £3,614, together with a victim surcharge, taking the total to £17,527. That structure is important in regulatory terms. The case was not treated simply as an administrative breach. It was framed as unlawful disposal activity that also created a commercial advantage by avoiding the costs attached to lawful waste handling.
The material was taken to land at Little Lindridge Farm near Kingsteignton, where no environmental permit was in force to authorise the deposits. The site owner, Christopher Garrett, was prosecuted in 2024 after the Environment Agency said multiple warnings had been issued. Investigators found thousands of tonnes of mixed construction and demolition waste at the premises. The agency estimated that remediation would cost at least £2.5 million. Because the land sits on a flood plain, the deposits were also assessed as having significantly increased flood risk in the area.
A central point in the prosecution was that Gorton said the landowner had told him a licence was in place for the site. The outcome makes clear that this was not enough. Registered carriers are expected to check for themselves whether a receiving site is lawfully permitted to accept the waste in question. The Environment Agency also said Gorton continued to make deposits after being warned about the site by an officer in 2019. In enforcement terms, that detail matters because it points to continued activity after direct regulatory contact rather than a one-off failure to verify a destination.
Section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 makes it an offence to deposit controlled waste without lawful authority, including where no environmental permit is in force. Section 34 creates a separate duty of care. For carriers, that includes ensuring waste is transferred with an adequate written description and only to a person or place lawfully entitled to receive it. Put plainly, the duty cannot be delegated by relying on a site operator’s assurance. A carrier needs to know where the material is going, on what legal basis it is being accepted, and what documentation accompanies the transfer. If those checks are missing, carrier registration offers no defence.
The case is especially relevant to construction and excavation work, where soil, stone and demolition material may be presented as low-risk loads or as fill for land improvement. The enforcement record in this case shows that apparently routine movements can become serious offences where the receiving site is unpermitted. For operators, the practical lesson is straightforward. Due diligence needs to cover the legal status of the site, the scope of any permit or exemption, and the accuracy of transfer paperwork. Where a site is on a flood plain, the consequences extend beyond waste regulation to public safety, drainage and long-term restoration cost.
In its public statement, the Environment Agency said illegal sites are made possible when carriers ignore the rules and continue to deposit waste at unlawful destinations. That places this prosecution within a wider effort to tackle waste crime by targeting each part of the chain of responsibility rather than focusing only on landowners. For policy readers, the broader significance lies in how the 1990 Act is being applied. The case shows section 33 unauthorised deposit offences and section 34 duty of care failures being used together to address illegal waste activity, environmental harm and floodplain protection in the same enforcement action. The agency has also said suspected illegal waste activity can be reported anonymously to Crimestoppers.