13 people have been convicted following an investigation by the Environment Agency into an illegal waste site in rural Lincolnshire, near Newark.
The findings of the investigation, named Operation Lord, led to ten defendants pleading guilty following an eight week trial at Nottingham Crown Court. Three defendants who had pleaded not guilty were found guilty.
As part of Operation Lord, Environment Agency officers spent months investigating the illegal waste site on Fen Lane, Long Bennington, before conducting a raid on the site in April 2020 with Lincolnshire Police.
The Environment Agency said its investigation found lorry-loads of shredded waste were regularly being accepted onto the site which was the size of a football pitch.
Waste was burned daily and buried and this activity intensified during the first Coronavirus lockdown in March 2020, the Environment Agency said.
Environment Agency officers also seized an excavator and a lorry which were actively depositing more waste at the site when officers arrived, which led to two waste brokers also being prosecuted.
The prosecution was brought against individuals that ran the illegal waste site; burned the waste; drove waste to the site and the landowners.
A sentencing for all defendants will be scheduled for a later date.
