A 39-week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, is the outcome for the operator of an illegal waste site in Sheffield who stored and burned mixed waste without an environmental permit for nearly three years.

Mohammed Tager, 38, pleaded guilty at Sheffield Magistrates' Court. The court also ordered him to complete 180 hours of unpaid work, pay a £187 victim surcharge and contribute £2,000 towards prosecution costs.

The site — the Former Stanley Works on Rutland Road, Sheffield — has now been fully cleared, closing out an enforcement case that began in July 2022.

What did the Environment Agency find?

Officers first visited the yard in July 2022. They recorded a large volume of mixed waste on the ground, including:

• fridges and waste electricals;
• inert material such as soil and stones;
• evidence of waste burning on site.

The Agency told the occupier that storing waste without a permit breaches environmental permitting rules. In October 2022, Tager received six weeks to clear the site completely.

He ignored the order. Complaints about waste burning continued into late 2024 and early 2025 before prosecutors brought the case to court.

Who else was sentenced?

Two co-defendants linked to the site were sentenced in April. The landowner, Concept Investments Limited, received an £8,000 fine, a £2,000 victim surcharge and £5,442 in costs.

Austin Fitzgerald, a director of the company, received a 12-month community order with 140 hours of unpaid work, plus costs of £5,442 and a £114 victim surcharge.

Combined, the penalties across the three defendants exceed £23,000 in fines, surcharges and cost contributions.

What does the sentencing signal?

Ben Hocking, Area Environment Manager for the Environment Agency in Yorkshire, said the case showed a total disregard for the law, the environment and the local community.

"He repeatedly ignored warnings and notices issued by our officers, who have worked incredibly hard to take action against him along with his co-defendants who were sentenced in April," Hocking said.

"Following the sentencing of the co-defendants, we were pleased to see that the site has now been fully cleared."

The case illustrates the enforcement pathway for unpermitted waste operations in England: statutory notice, compliance deadline, escalation through prosecution of both operator and landowner. Here, a six-week clearance order issued in October 2022 failed, and it took further complaints and more than two years of Agency action before the Rutland Road yard was emptied.

The milestone to track now is the site's confirmed clearance — the point at which the Environment Agency considers the remediation element of the case closed, with the suspended sentence hanging over Tager for the next 18 months.