Organised fly-tipping deposits 320 tonnes of waste in Camden despite police calls

Around 320 tonnes of commercial waste were illegally deposited at a vacant site in Camden, north London, over two days in June, residents and contractors said, after which initial police intervention did not halt the activity.

A local resident who filmed the dumping told authorities he watched flatbed trucks, tipper lorries and vans enter a former MOT test centre on June 14 and 15, reversing in to empty loads of building rubble, a large number of mattresses, wood, metal, doors, windows, pallets and sacks of rubbish. He said he phoned 101 and, later, 999 to report the activity and provided footage to the Metropolitan Police and to Crimestoppers, but subsequent clearing and follow-up contact were limited.

The resident said about four men arrived in a caravan, screened off the site entrance with a tarpaulin and then allowed tradesmen to enter and dump waste. He said he saw drivers with obscured or missing number plates and that work paused each evening and resumed the next morning. At one point a police officer visited, spoke briefly through the gates and left, he added.

BK Waste Management was awarded the contract to clear the site at a cost of £31,000 plus VAT; media reports have put the total clean-up at about £37,000. The landowner had gone into receivership in April, and responsibility for the cost will fall to the receivers, who declined to comment, according to the reporting.

The Metropolitan Police told the resident on June 24 that there were "further opportunities for investigation" and that the case had been passed to his nearest police station and an investigator would make contact. The resident said he was not subsequently contacted. The force did not provide additional comment to the reporting outlets.

An Environment Agency (EA) spokesman said the agency had not been alerted by police to the offending in Camden. The EA received an anonymous tip-off three days after the waste was dumped and an officer attended the site on June 19 to carry out an inspection; the spokesman said no evidence of ongoing dumping was identified and the incident was subsequently closed. The agency said the case would be re-opened should new evidence come to light.

Experts and contractors say the Camden incident is part of a wider pattern of organised waste crime that has targeted vacant sites across London and the south-east. Philip Langford, director of BK Waste Management, said his firm is repeatedly asked to clear similar sites and that many are retargeted if left unsecured. "This is a crime epidemic and there have been hundreds of these tips across London," Langford said. He said some sites are overtaken and offered as places to dump for cash payments that can be far lower than legitimate disposal fees.

Illegal tipping allows some hauliers and businesses to avoid regulated disposal costs and landfill taxes, making the practice profitable for organised operators and attractive to those seeking to cut expenses. Industry estimates cited in recent reporting place the economic cost of waste crime at roughly £600 million annually. One high-profile case in 2022 involved the illegal dumping of some 1,800 tonnes at a vacant site purchased by Amazon, a clear-up that reportedly cost the company about £500,000.

In 2020 the UK government established the Joint Unit for Waste Crime (JUWC) to coordinate activity among the EA, police, HM Revenue and Customs, local authorities and other agencies to tackle organised waste criminals. The EA said the JUWC has made progress aligning its approach with criminal justice agencies and described the model as respected internationally.

The Environmental Protection Act 1990 makes it an offence to dispose of controlled waste on any land without a permit; penalties include an unlimited fine and up to five years in prison. The EA is leading Operation Angola, a major ongoing investigation into organised illegal dumps across the south-east of England.

Former MP Lord Beamish, who pushed for the JUWC while in Parliament, said the Camden incident was symptomatic of wider failings. "Sadly, this is not an isolated incident," he told reporters, and said successive governments had promised action that had not fully materialised. He said he planned to raise questions in the House of Lords about prosecutions for landfill tax fraud under the JUWC.

The EA said it would reopen the Camden case if new evidence is provided. The Metropolitan Police has not provided a further public update on any investigative steps taken following the June reports, and the receivers for the site declined to comment on costs or ongoing liability. Contractors and residents warned that vacant, unsecured urban sites remain vulnerable to organised fly-tipping if enforcement and monitoring are not strengthened.