A father and son were fined a total of £18,500 for illegal dumping in the Benburb area at Dungannon Magistrates Court this week.

Thomas Joseph Curran (61), of Blackwatertown Road, Armagh, was fined £15,000 for breaches of waste management legislation. His son, James Curran (38), of Ballytroddan Road, Benburb, was also fined £3,500 for breaches of waste management legislation.

Environment and Heritage Service (EHS) officers conducted an investigation into the illegal land filling of waste at a site to the rear of 9 Ballytroddan Road, Benburb, during 2004-2005. On July 18, 2004, James Curran was observed by PSNI officers directing the disposal of waste at the site and admitted to them that the site was being infilled illegally. Three vehicles on the site were found to be registered to Thomas Curran.

Acting on this information from the PSNI, EHS officers conducted an intrusive survey at the Ballytroddan Road site on August 11, 2004. They observed that commercial waste (paper, plastics and some electrical waste) originating from businesses in the Portadown area had been buried in a field adjacent to a watercourse, which discharges to the Ballymartrim Water, a tributary of the River Blackwater.

Thomas Curran, the landowner, was determined to have used the site for the disposal of controlled waste and fined £5,000 on each of three charges under the Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997. James Curran was found guilty on one charge of directing the infilling of the unauthorised site with controlled waste on July 18, 2004, and fined £3,500.