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Co Down man jailed for nine months for illegal dumping

Downpatrick Crown Court heard on Thursday that it will cost the public purse around £240,000 to clean up the pollution 
Downpatrick Crown Court heard on Thursday that it will cost the public purse around £240,000 to clean up the pollution  Downpatrick Crown Court heard on Thursday that it will cost the public purse around £240,000 to clean up the pollution 

A CO Down businessman has been jailed for nine months for storing more than 2,000 tonnes of illegal waste including "toxic asbestos'' on his land.

John Paul Braniff (34), of Carnreagh Road in Ballynhinch, pleaded guilty to two charges of treating controlled likely to cause to pollution to the environment or damage to human health.

The former skip hire owner also pleaded guilty to two charges of unlawfully dumping controlled waste and keeping controlled waste on his land.

The offences were committed over a three-month period between August and October 2011 at two adjacent properties on Carnreagh Road.

Downpatrick Crown Court heard on Thursday that it will cost the public purse around £240,000 to clean up the pollution.

Passing sentence Judge Piers Grant said Braniff had shown "little insight into his offending or remorse for his behaviour, to the environment and to other people''.

As well as nine months behind bars Judge Grant, who said the maximum sentence for such offending was five years, also ordered Braniff to spend a further nine months on licence on his release.

The court heard Braniff had previously been ordered by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) to stop keeping waste on his land but these were ignored.

Prosecutor Sam Magee said that during follow up inspections in 2011 by NIEA, officials found further piles of both commercial and household waste on the land.

He said that in total "2,200 tonnes of mixed commercial and household waste was desposited on his land'' which had a total loss to the public purse in landfill tax and VAT of around £252,000.

Mr Magee said that in 2009, Braniff was operating Amber Skip hire and had been served notices not to keep waste on his land and to remove it.

The court was told that Braniff told NIEA officials that "he didn't care if there were court cases and he would not removing the waste within 30 days''.

Judge Grant heard that because of the illegal dumping, a test showed that sulphate levels in the underground water table were almost one-and-a-half-times the standards for drinking water.

The court was told Braniff had 31 previous convictions, including one for handling stolen goods for which he received a two year sentence suspended for three years in 2014.

Defence barrister Alan Blackburn said Braniff had pleaded to the offences which were "reckless as opposed to deliberate''.

Saying that the offences were "highly reckless'', Judge Piers Grant said he was making a confiscation order against Braniff for £108,350 which would include the sale of a property valued at £46,350 and along with £62,000 in cash.

The judge said the money had to be paid back within three months or Braniff would spend a further two years in jail for defaulting on the confiscation order.