Environment Agency investigation finds father and son running illegal waste site in Monkton Sidings in Fineshade

A father and son have been sentenced after pleading guilty to the operation of an illegal waste site in Fineshade.

Stephen Lack, 72, owns the Monkton Sidings site which he allowed his son, Andrew Lack, 38 to run as a waste site without an environmental permit, an Environment Agency investigation found. Waste was disposed of in a manner likely to cause pollution.

Stephen Lack of Monkton Sidings was sentenced at Northampton Crown Court to 34 weeks’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months. He was also ordered to pay £2,400 towards the prosecution costs and has two years to clear the waste from the site. The sentencing took place on Friday last week (September 13).

Andrew Lack of Monkton Sidings was sentenced on July 26, 2023 at Northampton Magistrates' Court to a six-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months on the condition that he perform 250 hours of unpaid work.

Investigations by the Environment Agency, including drone footage, revealed that skips of waste were being processed on site in an unlawful manner. In addition to the site’s lack of environmental permit, waste was stored on bare ground, risking contaminants polluting the soil and groundwater. This is particularly harmful for adjacent farmland and Fineshade Woods, a sensitive Forestry Commission location just 250m from Mr Lack’s waste site.

Stephen Lack has three previous convictions for similar offences at his Monkton Sidings site. He went to prison in 2021 for operating the waste site illegally, where waste was burned, buried and stockpiled. During his imprisonment, Andrew took over operations, but Stephen retained ownership of the site and allowed his son to continue the business. After his release, he resumed his involvement on-site.

Representing the Environment Agency at the hearing last week, solicitor advocate Sarah Dunne told the court that as well as allowing his son to use his land, Stephen Lack had helped with the driving of skip vehicles and the selling of scrap metal. She said: “This was not a wholly passive offence.”

Sentencing Stephen Lack, the Judge Mayo said that his behaviour had been “deliberate” and that he had exercised “ownership and control over the site for a period of two years”.

An order was made requiring Lack to clear the remaining unpermitted waste from the Monkton Sidings site. The judge warned Lack that if the order was breached, he would be brought back to court for enforcement action, which could lead to his return to prison.

Paul Salter, senior environmental crime officer for the Environment Agency, said: “It’s our job to regulate waste activity to make sure it doesn’t put people or the environment at risk. These cases are a shocking example of two individuals who continued to be driven by profit blatantly ignoring their responsibilities. They put people and nature in harm’s way and attempted to undercut legitimate businesses.”