Illegal dump site cleared after court order

A company that operated an illegal dump which included heaps of used mattresses, furniture and tyres has cleared the site after a court order.

Austin Fitzgerald, director of Concept Investments Limited, was fined £20,000 in April after an Environment Agency (EA) investigation into the land on Rutland Road, Sheffield, which he owns.

The illegal site, which also contained fridges and other electrical items and inert waste such as soil and stones, was visited by the EA several times between 2022 and 2025.

Fitzgerald, 65, pleaded guilty to allowing an illegal waste site to operate on land the company owns and was told at Sheffield Magistrates' Court in April he had one month to clear it.

Another defendant, Mohammed Tager, 38, pleaded guilty to operating the illegal waste site, on what is known as the Former Stanley Works, and is due to be sentenced in September at the same court.

The court had heard that Concept Investments was the landlord of the site and allowed a waste site to operate without an environmental permit.

The EA first visited the site in July 2022 and found a large amount of mixed waste.

In a follow-up visit later in the year, the EA told the owner that waste could not be stored there without a permit and gave six weeks for it to be cleared.

In January 2023, it was found none of the waste had been cleared and more had accumulated.

The EA subsequently made more requests for no more waste to be brought on to the site, and by 2024 complaints started about the burning of waste, which was affecting local residents.

In March 2025, Fitzgerald was interviewed by the EA where he said he inspected the site regularly, but waste was still to be found there during another visit that April.

In total, the company was fined £8,000, ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £2,000 and costs of £5,442, while Fitzgerald was sentenced to a 12-month community order with 140 hours of unpaid work, and was ordered to pay costs of £5,442 and a victim surcharge of £114.

Ben Hocking, area environment manager for the EA in Yorkshire, said: "Illegal waste operations impact on the environment and the lives of local residents and I'm pleased this site has now been fully cleared.

"This should serve as a warning for landowners that if you allow illegal waste activity to take place on your land we will take action.

"We are cracking down across the sector on those flouting the regulations."

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