A Norfolk man has been jailed for storing and burning waste illegally at a site near Outwell despite multiple warnings.

Trevor Sieley, 63 and from Langhorns Lane in Outwell, was imprisoned for eight months and ordered to pay a £140 victim surcharge and £10 for breaching a suspended sentence order during his hearing at Norwich Crown Court on April 6.

Sieley was also served a court order requiring him to remove all waste from the west Norfolk site by June 30, 2023, and to provide the Environment Agency with all paperwork by July 7, 2023.

He pleaded guilty to storing and disposing of waste without an environmental permit. The waste included agricultural vehicles and equipment from his contracting business and scrap metal he planned to sell.

He also disposed of commercial waste for friends and family, his actions saving them from paying for its correct disposal.

Sieley's burning of the waste produced fumes that could be harmful to human health and adversely affect the environment. There were residential buildings and businesses just 200m away.

Officers from the Environment Agency attended the site seven times and found charred remains of shredded rubbish, including plastics and metal as well as hazardous materials like a vehicle engine and a TV.

The waste was being burned in a specially constructed pit with an excavator.

Sieley was ordered to clear the site by the Environment Agency in 2019 but subsequent visits showed he was continuing to burn waste.

Judge Andrew Shaw described Sieley as “arrogant” and told him: “You are someone who thinks the criminal law doesn’t apply to you. You haven’t just not made it better, you have made it worse.”

He had breached environmental laws since 2008 notching up two previous sets of environmental convictions and being made subject to a suspended sentence for permitting the cultivation of cannabis at the same site.

The offences took place between July 29, 2019, and December 17, 2019.