A County Fermanagh farmer, Philip Johnston, has been sentenced to four months' imprisonment and fined £10,000 after being convicted of breaching the Waste and Contaminated Land Order (Northern Ireland) SI 1997/2778. The court found that Mr Johnston had kept controlled waste, which was likely to cause pollution to the environment or harm to human health.
Environment and Heritage Service (EHS) Officers investigated Johnston's farm at Killadeas. An estimated 1,900 tonnes of municipal-type waste was found buried under pastures to the rear of the farmyard. The waste included a mixture of biodegradable wastes, including food packaging, plastics, papers and low-grade medical waste. Further examination revealed it had come from Cork, Dublin, and Wexford.
EHS officials calculated that it would have cost £88,000 to have disposed of the rubbish legally in Northern Ireland and 420,000 euros in the Republic of Ireland.
Mr Johnston had claimed that waste paper was brought on to the farm to provide bedding for livestock quarantined as the result of a bruccellosis outbreak. However, the Resident Magistrate, Austin Kennedy, stated that Johnston had told a "tissue of lies" to support his story. Moreover, Mr Kennedy commented, "Farmers are the guardians of the countryside, [and that Johnston had] undermined the work of a good majority of farmers in Northern Ireland."
