Waste site operator, Barry Connally, has this week been ordered to pay back over £179,000 that he obtained through proceeds of crime while running an illegal waste operation.

Connally, 70, of Chaceley, Gloucester, was the sole director of Rhino Recycling Limited that operated a waste treatment facility on the QinetiQ Industrial Estate in Long Lane, Pershore. Between March 2013 and December 2015 he ran the site without the necessary Environmental Permit.

In June 2019, Connally was sentenced to 12 months’ custody suspended for 18 months and also ordered to complete 160 hours’ unpaid work in the community. The sentencing judge found that Connally prioritised profit and adopted an ‘arrogant approach to the regulatory regime’.

The Environment Agency went on to bring confiscation proceedings against Connally to recover the proceeds of crime. In passing a confiscation order against him yesterday, Worcester Crown Court heard that he had used Rhino Recycling Limited’s company persona to conceal his identity as the true actor in relation to the illegal waste operation.

Between March 2013 and December 2015, Connally acquired over £1,000,000 in criminal benefit from the company’s illegal waste activities. He has been ordered to pay back £179,373.36, the sum total of all of his available assets.

Connally also pleaded guilty to contempt of court for dealing with and disposing of a portion of his assets between September 2019 and July 2020, contrary to the terms of a court order forbidding him from doing so. He was sentenced to 4 months’ imprisonment suspended for 18 months.

Speaking after yesterday’s hearing a spokesperson for the Environment Agency said:

This case shows that we’re not just content to prosecute those who run illegal waste sites, we’ll also come after them to get back the profits they made from their illegal activities and to recoup taxpayers’ money spent on pursuing them.