A CO Tyrone man has been convicted of burning car tyres on the shores of Lough Neagh.
Sean Damien Thompson (59) of Maghery Road, Dungannon, was yesterday fined £1,000 and ordered to pay an offender levy of £15, in addition to court costs of £32 at Craigavon Magistrates Court, for breaches of waste management legislation.
The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs said in April 2017, council officers saw a white van belonging to Thompson being loaded with around 200 tyres at an abandoned tyre centre in Annesborough Industrial Park, Lurgan.
The officers followed the van to a site off Maghery Road in Portadown, where the tyres were unloaded on an area of previous burning.
The site was home to a number of pairs of nesting swans.
A subsequent visit found the tyres were reduced to smouldering ash.
In May 2017, Northern Ireland Environment Agency officers visited the site to assess "the extent and impact of the burning" and found tyres burning on site again, with "multiple areas of burning within one metre of the shore of Lough Neagh".
