Brother to repay £53k made from illegal waste dumps

19 November 2025

Alex PopeBedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire

News image — Two brothers were punished after rubbish was unlawfully dumped at Codicote Quarry

Environment Agency A pile of rubbish at Codicote Quarry: brown earth filled with rubbish including a blue plastic bag, a white plastic bag, stones, pieces of wood, and a piece or orange plastic — Two brothers were punished after rubbish was unlawfully dumped at Codicote Quarry

A man who helped his brother dump vast quantities of illegal and dangerous waste in a quarry has been ordered to repay thousands of pounds he made from it - or face jail.

Prosecutors said Mark Winters, 51, from Rugby, Warwickshire, dumped enough rubbish at Codicote Quarry near Stevenage to fill the Royal Albert Hall "three times over".

The waste was transferred by lorry over a three-year period and included "banned and potentially harmful cargo" which had often been covered with soil to avoid detection, the Environment Agency said.

At a proceeds of crime hearing at St Albans Crown Courtc, Winters was ordered to repay almost £53,000 - or face two years in jail.

Environment Agency A large pile of waste rotting in a quarry. The waste is hard to work out. It mostly includes bits of plastic, paper, and fibres. — Waste at Codicote Quarry included electrical items, furniture, car parts, food packaging, wood and metal

Mark Winters served a 12-month suspended prison sentence after admitting disposing unlawfully large quantities of household and business rubbish at Codicote Quarry between 2015 and 2017.

His brother, Liam Winters, 48, was given 17 months in prison in 2023 for illegal dumping at Codicote - as well as at another quarry in Anstey, and a firing range at Nuthampstead, south of Royston.

He was previously ordered to pay back almost £79,000 in profits from the three Hertfordshire sites.

Environment Agency Anstey Quarry: Large piles of brown earth filled with small stones. Green fields, trees and sky can be seen in the background — Three Hertfordshire sites featured in the Environment Agency investigation, including Anstey Quarry

The agency said: "For nearly three years, lorry after lorry carried banned and a potentially harmful cargo into the quarry.

"As much as 200,000 cubic metres of harmful biodegradable materials was buried at Codicote."

Illegal items were also dumped at Anstey Quarry, near Buntingford and Nuthampstead shooting ground, near Royston.

Barry Russell, environment manager for the Environment Agency in Hertfordshire, said: "We are determined that waste operators who break the law don't benefit from their crimes.

"Despite warnings from the Environment Agency to stop, Mark Winters carried on bringing in more illegal waste."

The brothers had "showed no regard for the law and the effect of their business on the environment," the agency added.

The disposal means Codicote Quarry will have to be monitored for many years to minimise the risk of polluting the River Mimram and groundwater sources as the quarry was not set up for landfill, the agency said.