Serial waste crook who dumped over 4,000 tonnes across country forced to hand over £1.4m

A prolific waste criminal has been ordered to hand over more than £1.4 million for illegally dumping in excess of 4,275 tonnes of waste across England.

A nationwide investigation by the Environment Agency uncovered a network of 16 illegal dumping sites, stretching from the northeast to the south coast. Farms, a historic manor house and a nature reserve were among the locations trashed.

Varun Datta, 36, of Little Chester Street, 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 slapped with a prison sentence of four months suspended for 18 months, as well as 30 days’ rehabilitation and 200 hours of unpaid work.

The shocking case, which concluded in Birmingham Crown Court last Friday (13 February), involved the prosecution of two other men, with one being fined and the other facing a suspended sentence, rehabilitation and unpaid work. Warrants for the arrest of two other men are still active.

Emma Viner, Enforcement and Investigations Manager in the Environment Agency's National Environmental Crime Unit, said: “We are glad to see the perpetrators brought to justice in this appalling case.

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

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

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

"This 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."

In 2018, the Environment Agency seized £131,520 in cash from Datta’s home address. In 2022, a restraint order was applied to two bank accounts ensuring that any future confiscation order could be paid. After pleading not guilty in 2023, Datta subsequently pleaded guilty in June 2025 to knowingly causing controlled waste to be deposited at sixteen sites. The total weight of the waste was around 4,275 tonnes – roughly the weight of 600 African elephants.

The Sites

    Unit P, Continental Approach, Westwood Business Park, Margate, Kent

    Trelawny House, Straight Drove, Farcet, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire

    Somersbury Manor, Horsham Lane, Ewhurst, Cranleigh, Surrey

    The Drift, Sewstern, Grantham, Lincolnshire

    Stockenhall Farm, Stretton, Rutland

    Yaxley Lodge Farm, Yaxley, Cambridgeshire

    Conquest Drove, Farcet, Cambridgeshire

    Humby Mills Farm, Grantham, Lincolnshire

    Sycamore Farm, Lower Bassingthorpe, Grantham, Lincolnshire

    Peacock Farm, Muston, Leicestershire

    Lime Tree Farm, English Drove, Thorney, Lincolnshire

    Gill Bridge Farm, Boston, Lincolnshire

    The Limes, Spalding, Lincolnshire

    The Former Sulzer, Dowding and Mills Factory, Lower East Street, Middlesbrough

    Middleton Nature Reserve, Lancashire

    Rhyddings Mill, Stonebridge Lane, Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire

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.”

No environmental permit or valid exemption was in place at any of the sites, which were spread across Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Lancashire, Kent, Surrey, Rutland and Middlesborough.

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, London, helped to falsify weighbridge documents to cover up the illegal acts.

The £100,000 in compensation to be paid by Datta relates to the dumping at the former Sulzer Dowding Mills Factory site in Middlesbrough, as well as the Middleton Nature Reserve in Lancashire. Middlesborough Council will receive £70,000 towards the cost of the clean-up, while £30,000 will be awarded to the Lancashire Wildlife Trust for the future management of the Middleton Nature Reserve.

Anyone who suspects illegal waste activity is asked to report it to the Environment Agency’s 24-hour hotline - 0800 80 70 60 - or anonymously contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Others Involved

Datta has been ordered to pay £1,116,432.78 by way of a Confiscation Order. This figure was agreed by the parties. It represents the financial gain to the defendant from knowingly causing the deposit of waste.

Mohammed Saraji Bashir, 45, of Windmill Street, Peterborough, had pleaded guilty on 3 June 2025 for knowingly causing controlled waste to be deposited at three sites.

He was given a prison sentence of four months suspended for 18 months. He must also complete 30 days of rehabilitation activity and 200 hours of unpaid work.

Robert William McAllister, 55, of Iveagh Close, Northwood, London, had pleaded guilty on 7 November 2024 for failing to comply with the duty of care imposed on brokers of waste, in relation to controlled waste that was deposited at two sites. He was fined £750.

The Court was told that Bashir and McAllister acted as brokers. They both failed to ensure that the waste transferred was going to permitted sites.

Warrants for Sandeep Golechha, 53, of Wheatley Close, London, and Jason Newman, of no fixed abode, are still active.

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

Previous Prosecution

Two men were previously prosecuted for running the Margate site.

Routine complaints about flies in a seaside town unearthed a vast cavern of illegally-stored waste.

No wonder the flies, as well as rats, were interested. David Weeks and Lee Brookes had built up a massive stockpile of rubbish, neatly packaged in black plastic.

The Environment Agency prosecuted the pair, resulting in suspended prison sentences totalling 20 months between them for filling a Margate warehouse with the waste.

It was spring 2017. As the weather warmed up, frustrated residents rang the local council to report swarms of flies close to an anonymous building.

Officials at Thanet District Council contacted the Environment Agency, which began an investigation. It discovered the illegal storage of thousands of bales of household and construction waste inside the building, unit P, on the Westwood Business Park.

A director of Devon-based DW Land Ltd, Weeks signed a one-year lease with the building’s owners at the start of 2017.

But no sooner was the ink dry on the lease that lorry after lorry began arriving in Margate from across the home counties – a procession of 220 vehicles over three months, offloading 6,000 blocks of waste and placed in the building.

Totnes businessman Weeks employed Brookes’ firm, OMC Outdoor Maintenance Company, of Whitworth, in Lancashire, to secure and manage unit P. Weeks told the Environment Agency he was the agent for two companies wanting the site for an energy-from-waste plant. 

Judge Simon Taylor KC heard the waste had left legal sites in Hampshire and Hertfordshire, bound for the Kent coast, to be stored inside the building, but outside the law. Neither Brookes nor Weeks obtained an environmental permit for the storage of waste.

Matt Higginson, environment manager for the Environment Agency in Kent, said: "Weeks and Brookes profited financially from payments made to the sites where the waste originated and from its storage in Kent. Not getting an environmental permit for the building, avoiding the cost and requirements of getting one, Weeks and Brookes gave themselves an unfair advantage over legitimate waste operators A permit for the site would have required a plan to manage the risk of fire. Risk became reality when the building went up in flames. The disruption for local people went on for almost a month. "

This case proves you must use firms authorised to take away your waste. Check the register of waste carriers’ licences on gov.uk.

Throughout 2017 and 2018, Weeks and Brookes gave the Environment Agency several excuses as to why they couldn’t clear the waste from the building. 

On 18 September that year, the building caught fire. Kent Fire and Rescue Service fought the blaze for 25 days. At its peak, rubbish burst out of the packaging. Although no cause for the fire has ever been found, roads and businesses had to close, and the disruption led to operations cancelled at the local hospital.

It was only a year later, towards the end of 2019, and almost three years after the first delivery of rubbish, what waste survived the fire was finally removed by the battered building’s new owner.

Weeks and Brookes gave scant assistance to the Environment Agency’s investigation. Even after the fire, the pair kept a very low profile.

At Canterbury crown court, David Weeks, 55, previously of School Hill, Totnes, Devon, was sentenced to 16 months in prison, suspended for two years. He also to pay £5,000 in costs, and a victim surcharge of £140.

Judge Taylor also gave Weeks 150 hours unpaid work and 20 days of rehabilitation activity aimed at preventing him from reoffending. He’ll have to wear an electronic tag to monitor his daytime movements for the next two months. 

Lee Brookes, previously of Tonacliffe Way, Whitworth, Lancashire, received a sentence of four months in prison, suspended for a year. He was also given 80 hours of unpaid work and the same 20 days of rehabilitation programme. The court also ordered the 48-year-old to pay costs of £1,000 and a £115 victim surcharge.   

At the hearing on 21 January, the court was told Weeks was fined almost £10,000 seven years ago for his part in the management of a site in Plymouth where 13,000 tonnes of wood was stored illegally.   

The two men pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to knowing their respective companies, DW Land and OMC Maintenance, ran the waste operation in Margate without an environmental permit between 13 January 2017 and 22 August 2019, against regulation 12 (1)(a) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016. 

DW Land Ltd, of Paignton Road, Stoke Gabriel, Totnes, Devon, and OMC Outdoor Maintenance Company Ltd, also of Tonacliffe Way, Whitworth, Lancashire, are no longer trading.