Two men are still to be sentenced nearly four months after pleading guilty to operating one of the largest illegal dump sites ever discovered in Ireland or the UK.
Paul Doherty (64), of Culmore Road in Derry, and Gerry Farmer (53), of Westlake, pleaded guilty last October to illegal waste dumping at Mobouy Road outside the north west city.
The case, linked to the dumping of approximately one million tonnes of waste, was up for mention on Friday, initially at Laganside Crown Court before a late switch to Coleraine.
Doherty pleaded guilty to seven charges, Farmer to three. They include handling waste “in a manner likely to cause pollution to the environment or harm to human health”. Farmer’s company, City Industrial Waste, also pleaded guilty.
The defendants, along with another man, were first charged seven years ago. They were initially charged with failing to pay over £50m in landfill tax but these were dropped.
A delay in sentencing is largely due to the court asking for an environmental impact assessment to find out the damage done by the dumping at the site at the centre of a scandal which first surfaced nearly a decade ago.
Following the delivery of the Environment Agency (NIEA) report, the defendants asked for a right of reply, which was only recently given to the court.
Details of the delay in sentencing have emerged as a major investigation into illegal dumping, centring on Mobouy, was broadcast across this week on Radio Four.
'Buried' features tape of an interview by Eamonn McCann with Joe Ferguson, a lorry driver who was able to give an insider’s account of the vast operation. Lorries delivered waste from across the north.
The two-year investigation looked at the involvement of criminal gangs in the UK waste business.
It also details how Belfast officials likely knew of a possible crime scene as early as 2000 long before it was shut down in 2013,on the orders of then Environment Minister Alex Atwood.
“Welcome to Mobuoy, a scene of horror,” environmental campaigner Dean Blackwood says on the broadcast.
Following the broadcast, the Mobouy site is receiving renewed attention in the UK, Mr Blackwood said on Friday.
He and other campaigners are hoping that promised remediation work will start soon on the site.
“What (DAERA officials) have done is reactionary…stopping toxic leachate…and they have dug a trench all around to prevent it getting into the tributary all along the edge,” Mr Blackwood said. "But they have not done any remediation, not decided any remediation strategy."
In a statement, a department spokesperson said: "NIEA has engaged with industry representatives to ensure every opportunity is provided for innovative, affordable and up to date options to be brought forward to remediate the site.
"Options may include in situ treatment or removal of the waste or a combination of both. As the optimum remediation strategy for the site has not yet been selected, it is not possible to give a meaningful cost estimate at this time."
