Essex Police have arrested three men from east London on suspicion of depositing and storing waste on an unpermitted site.

The men, aged 19, 23 and 47, were detained when police executed a warrant on land off Arterial Road, Purfleet, Essex on 10 April and found 1,500 tonnes of household and business waste ‘illegally dumped on open land’ and camouflaged as 3,000 ‘plastic-wrapped hay bales’.

According to the Environment Agency, waste was compacted and wrapped in plastic bales (holding up to half a ton) before being taken to fields and built into the form of a haystack in order to give the impression that the plastic contains hay, straw or silage.

The suspects were interviewed at Grays police station before being bailed until 10 July by EA officers pending further enquiries.

Fears of ‘organised criminal scam’

EA investigators have said that the illegal practice is allowing criminals to make ‘huge sums of money’ by charging households and businesses to dispose of their waste but dumping it in remote locations, such as farmland, to avoid the fees involved in legally disposing of the waste.

Police are nowurging farmers and landowners to beware that waste could be illegally dumped on their land (and disguised to avoid detection), amid fears that this practice is part of a larger ‘organised criminal scam’.

Lesley Robertson, an Environment Agency Environmental Crime Team Leader, said: “The discovery of around 3,000 bales of rubbish in Essex is believed to be linked to a highly-organised criminal scam involving the disposal of household and business waste.

“This is an emerging trend but the first time evidence of the scam has been found in South Essex. However, we are concerned that more bales may have been dumped elsewhere and we want to urge people to look out for these sites and report them to us.

“This is a form of fly-tipping but on a massive and organised scale. The bales are being stored to look like farmers’ haystacks and the contents will only come to light if the bags tear.”

‘Total disregard for the environment’

Robertson continued: “The waste includes all forms of household and business rubbish such as food waste, plastic and cans. They are being dumped and abandoned with total disregard for the environment, landowners and any member of the public who use the land.”

Anyone who finds these sites is asked to call the Environment Agency on a 24-hour free incident hotline number 0800 80 70 60, or make an anonymous report to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

The hay bale case marks part of the EA’s crackdown on illegal waste sites. Last month, the EA undertook a ‘day of action’ against waste crime, which saw over 100 officers visiting 60 sites across the country.

The EA claims that in 2012 it forced 1,135 illegal waste sites to cease operations, stating: ”Illegal sites can cause serious pollution incidents, bad smells, chemical spills, blight on the landscape, and misery for surrounding communities.”