North Antrim farmer in court for dumping almost 20,000 tonnes of waste on his land

At Antrim Crown Court, 51-year-old Alan Chestnutt entered guilty pleas to three of the 14 charges against him in that on dates between January 1 2017 and January 29 2019, he dumped 18,000 tonnes of controlled waste on land on the Cabragh Road in Bushmills.

Chestnutt, from the Haw Road in Bushmills, admitted depositing controlled waste without a waste management licence, that he “treated, kept or knowingly caused or permitted controlled waste to be treated or kept in or on land”, and lastly that he “kept controlled waste in a manner likely to cause pollution of the environment or harm to human health”.

Following the admissions, prosecuting counsel Michael Chambers asked the court to mark the remaining 11 charges as “left on the books” and defence counsel Barry Gibson confirmed that Chestnutt had entered pleas “on a full facts basis”.

Mr Chambers also confirmed that charges two other men would not be proceeding with one count to be left on the books while the other would have charges withdrawn once he receives a police caution.

In relation to the case against Chestnutt, Mr Gibson asked for sentencing to be adjourned pending the completion of an expert environmental report, rather than the usual probation report.

“I think the court would benefit from a report from a recognised expert in this field, particularly in relation to pollution,” he told Judge Alistair Devlin, adding that although it could take three months for such a report, “it would be an important piece of evidence” when the case comes to be dealt with”.

Mr Gibson told the court that when he visited the site where the waste had been dumped, “there were deer grazing, it’s covered in grass and Mr Chestnutt has tried to reduce the impact by planting trees around the border”.

The barrister explained that Chestnutt had began dumping waste to be able to gain access to land to make it “more farmable just beyond the moss but it got out of hand and became basically a dump”.

“I did not see any streams or water ways but that’s what needs to be looked at,” said Mr Gibson and Mr Chambers agreed the site needed to be examined by an expert.

Judge Devlin said given the length of time an expert report will take, he would not set a definitive date for sentencing but instead, adjourned the case to January 10.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​