Cheltenham waste operator pays £47,000 over red diesel dumping

A Cheltenham waste operator must pay £47,610 in total after dumping illegal red diesel across its site, following an unannounced HMRC inspection that found fuel deliberately emptied from a scalping screener onto bare ground.

At Gloucester Crown Court, J. Gilder Earthmoving and Aggregates Ltd received a £12,000 fine, costs of £33,610.06 and a £2,000 statutory surcharge for environmental offences relating to the discharge of fuel onto the ground.

In his sentencing remarks, judge Rupert Lowe called the offending a 'deliberate and blatant' attempt to get round the law.

That's the full financial picture for a case that started with a two-hour standoff at the site gate.

What did inspectors find on site?

In 2022, HMRC inspectors made an unannounced visit to J. Gilder Earthmoving and Aggregates Ltd to check whether the company was still using red diesel — a fuel whose use has been restricted since 2022.

The site was open for business, but inspectors were denied access for over two hours.

Once inside, they observed that someone on site had emptied red diesel from a scalping screener — a separator for bulky construction waste — and dumped it onto the ground. Despite the efforts to conceal the activity, inspectors discovered two large puddles of red diesel.

The takeaway: a delay tactic at the gate couldn't hide two pools of dyed fuel on open ground.

How did regulators respond?

HMRC reported the offence to the Environment Agency, which visited the site and took soil samples to determine the extent of ground contamination.

Two enforcement tracks then ran in parallel:

• HMRC issued a fine for the unlawful use of red diesel
• The Environment Agency charged the company with environmental offences over the fuel discharge onto the ground

After the incident, the Environment Agency ensured the company removed around 3.5 tonnes of the most contaminated soil. The regulator said this reduced the ongoing effect of the spillage and the risk of seepage into the groundwater.

In short: contaminated soil went out, and the groundwater risk came down.

What happened at the second enforcement front in Lancashire?

Separately, the Environment Agency is appealing for help to identify a man suspected of dumping around 75 tonnes of mixed commercial and household waste in Lancashire.

A total of five deposits were made over one day using a wagon displaying cloned vehicle registration plates — a tactic used to avoid detection.

The landowner now faces thousands of pounds in clean-up costs to ensure the waste is removed and disposed of at a legitimate waste facility.

The appeal featured on Crimewatch Live on 22 October. John Neville, Area Environment Manager for the Environment Agency, urged anyone who recognises the man in the footage to come forward.

"This was a deliberate dumping of waste, and we believe it was planned using cloned number plates to help evade detection," Neville said.

"The landowner is facing clean-up costs and the mill sits in a residential area next to a canal, with local people having to live with the sight of this waste every day," he added.

The pattern links both cases: concealment — locked gates in Cheltenham, cloned plates in Lancashire — treated by regulators and courts as evidence of intent, not accident.

The next milestone in the Lancashire case is whether the CCTV appeal produces an identification; in Cheltenham, the sentence closes the file.