A Co Armagh man was fined a total of £30,000 and given a three month suspended sentence at Armagh Magistrates' Court for three waste offences.

Mr Thomas James McArdle, (46), of Rockstown Road, Cladymiltown, Armagh, was fined £10,000 for each of the three offences.

On the 19/05/2011 officers of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) visited a site adjacent to 147 Cladymiltown Road Armagh in response to a complaint of unauthorised waste disposal.

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The site was secured with a gate however at the bottom of the site significant earthworks had been carried out. The topsoil had been scraped off and controlled waste had been deposited in this area. The controlled waste consisted of broken glass, insulation material, mixed plastics, wood and metals. The waste had been macerated so that the majority of the waste pieces were less than 5 cm in size.

Subsequent visits to the site by the NIEA Environmental Crime Team on the 08/06/2011 and 28/09/2011, found that the waste had been buried on the site and covered with topsoil.

During investigations of the waste quantities on site it was established that the site contained between 200 and 300 tones of macerated processed waste. This would have cost approximately £30,000 to dispose off at a legal, licensed facility.

(CD/GK)