A prolific waste criminal has been ordered to hand over more than £1.4 million for illegally dumping more than 4,000 tonnes of waste across England – including at a farm in Peterborough.

A nationwide investigation by the Environment Agency uncovered a network of 16 illegal dumping sites, stretching from the South East to the North West.

Places the waste was dumped included Yaxley, Farcet and Thorney, a manor house at Ewhurst in Surrey, and at a warehouse at Margate in Kent.

Varun Datta, 36, of Little Chester Street, in Belgravia, London must now pay £1.1 million, reflecting the financial benefit from his crimes, plus £100,000 in compensation and £200,000 in prosecution costs. He was also hit with a prison sentence of four months, suspended for 18 months, as well as 30 days’ rehabilitation and 200 hours of unpaid work.

placeholder image — Some of the dumped waste

The case, heard at Birmingham crown court, also saw two others prosecuted.

Mohammed Saraji Bashir, 45, of Windmill Street, Peterborough, also got a four-month suspended prison sentence, unpaid work and period of rehabilitation, while Robert William McAllister, 55, of Iveagh Close, Northwood, London, was fined £750. Warrants for the arrest of two other men are still active.

Two more waste criminals, David Weeks and Lee Brookes, were given suspended prison sentences last year for the waste stored illegally at a rat-infested industrial unit in Margate.

Emma Viner, enforcement and investigations manager in the Environment Agency's National Environmental Crime Unit, said:

The majority of the waste dumped was mixed municipal waste, wrapped in plastic to form bales.

“We are glad to see the Datta, Bashir and McAllister brought to justice in this appalling case.

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

“We will never stop fighting to end the scourge of waste crime that 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.

Varun Datta, 36, of Little Chester Street, in Belgravia, must now pay £1.1 million, reflecting the financial benefit from his crimes, plus £100,000 in compensation and £200,000 in prosecution costs.

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

"The 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."

After pleading not guilty in 2023, Datta changed his plea to guilty in June last year to knowingly causing controlled waste to be deposited at the sixteen sites. The total weight of the waste was around 4,275 tonnes – roughly the weight of 600 African elephants.

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.”

The court heard that Datta became a registered waste broker through his company, Atkins Recycling Ltd, in 2015. He acted recklessly by claiming the waste the company handled was being sent to a legal site at Kiveton Park, near Sheffield. However, the loads were actually diverted to unlicensed dumps around the country. It is alleged that an associate, Sandeep Golechha, 55, of Wheatley Close, Barnet, north London, helped to falsify weighbridge documents to cover up the illegal acts.