A gang of waste crooks is still at large nearly two years after costing Amazon £500,000 by filling one of its sites with 1,800 tons of junk, an industry insider claimed today.
Criminals are running rings around law enforcers by commandeering private land, then charging trades people to dump waste illegally over weekends, before fleeing to another site.
A source spoke after the Sunday Express revealed that the Environment Agency has launched an Economic Crime Unit.
It targets organised gangs which are using the industry to launder proceeds of illegal operations, such as drug and firearm trafficking.
The ECU will seek to use account freezing orders to seize funds from suspected waste criminals even before they are prosecuted. And it will investigate money laundering that could see offenders jailed for up to 14 years.
It cost Amazon £500,000 to clear the site of illegally tipped waste (Image: Instagram)
But the insider said the unit could struggle to make a real impact due to the scale of offending – with some crooks seemingly able to operate without fear of arrest.
He claimed the same group still operating was responsible for a series of massive fly-tips across south London in 2022, including a Croydon warehouse that was filled up twice within six months, and the EA was aware of who they are.
He said: “It’s rife. The same lot find any empty industrial unit or car park and fill them up over a weekend. They did a lot between October and last month but have still not been arrested.
“They just move on to the next one, with the landowner picking up the bill.”
The Amazon site was bought in Croydon in late 2021 as a depot for electric vehicles. Before it could be used, it was carpeted in junk, including 3.3 tons of dangerous asbestos.
According to our source, it was filled in daylight hours over several days and understood to be one of the biggest single illegal dumps ever made.
Drone footage before it was cleared shows acres of various materials discarded across the site.
Amazon, which has yet to comment on the dumping, paid a contractor £500,000 to clear it.
The insider said once a site is taken over, often by breaking locks, the criminals alert local trades people via WhatsApp to the location and they are charged about £50 per load to dump there, avoiding the hefty charges levied at legitimate tips.
He claimed: “There is a site in Thurrock, Essex, which the EA has been alerted to that has been burning waste illegally every day for the past two years, with nothing done.”
Another site where no one has been prosecuted is the grounds of a £10million mansion then owned by former Billericay Town FC boss Glenn Tamplin.
The Sunday Express revealed in March 2022 how thousands of tons of waste – a mixture of building spoil and shredded matter – were dumped in the grounds after a crime gang took over the property following an assault on Mr Tamplin.
Tonnes of waste was dumped in the grounds of this Essex mansion (Image: Essex County Council)
He is thought not to have been involved and has since sold the property. The EA launched a probe into the source of the
waste, which covered an area the size of a football pitch and was visible from the M11.
The investigation is still ongoing, with no arrests as yet, and the new owner of the mansion remains responsible for removing the waste.
Steve Morris, a former intelligence DS with the Met Police, said: “The Environment Agency is not equipped to deal with organised crime although the agency will have vital intelligence and evidence which could be useful to law enforcement.
“It should have the capability to call on all government agencies, including the National Crime Agency, to bring down organised crime.”
Jonathan Grimes, Kingsley Napley Solicitors criminal litigation partner, said: “The use of account freezing and forfeiture orders will enable the EA to target the financial resources of companies without needing to secure a criminal conviction for waste crime, or even to open a criminal investigation.”
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The waste dumped in the Essex mansion could be seen from the M11 (Image: Jon Austin)
Alan Lovell, chairman of the EA, insisted the ECU could help remove gangsters from the industry. “Waste crime costs our economy an estimated £1billion every year,” he said.
“The EA is committed to taking tough action and the launch of our dedicated ECU shows we will not tolerate organised criminals moving into the waste sector to facilitate other crimes.”
An EA spokesman said there is an ongoing operation to target offenders, adding: “We are committed to taking tough action against these criminals – with 20 successful prosecutions completed through Operation Angola, and more legal proceedings under way.”
