Payback order after illegal waste site boss made £1m
We’re not just content to prosecute... we’ll also come after them to get back the profits they made from their illegal activities Environment Agency
AN illegal waste site operator in Worcestershire has been ordered to pay back everything he has after making £1 million through his illicit activities.
Barry Connally was the sole director of Rhino Recycling Limited, which operated a waste treatment facility on the QinetiQ Industrial Estate in Long Lane, Pershore. Between March 2013 and December 2015, he ran the site without the required environmental permit.
The 70-year-old, of Chaceley, Gloucester, was said to have ‘‘prioritised profit’’ and adopted an ‘‘arrogant approach to the regulatory regime’’, according to the sentencing judge in June 2019.
The judge handed Connally a oneyear prison sentence, suspended for 18 months and ordered the pensioner to carry out 160 hours of unpaid work in the community.
The Environment Agency then brought confiscation proceedings against Connally to recover the proceeds of crime.
In passing a confiscation order against him, Worcester Crown Court heard that he had used Rhino Recycling Limited’s company persona to conceal his identity as the ‘‘true actor’’ in relation to the illegal waste operation.
Between March 2013 and December 2015, Connally acquired more than £1 million in criminal benefit from the company’s illegal waste activities. He has been ordered to pay back £179,373.36, the sum total of all of his available assets.
Connally also pleaded guilty to contempt of court for dealing with and disposing of a portion of his assets between September 2019 and July 2020, contrary to the terms of a court order forbidding him from doing so.
He was sentenced to four months’ imprisonment suspended for 18 months.
Speaking after the hearing last Thursday, a spokesperson for the Environment Agency said: “This case shows that we’re not just content to prosecute those who run illegal waste sites, we’ll also come after them to get back the profits they made from their illegal activities and to recoup taxpayers’ money spent on pursuing them.”