Criminals have infiltrated the waste sector: is your business at risk?

Illegally dumped waste causes significant environmental damage and poses serious health risks to individuals.

The correct amount of Landfill Tax/Landfill Disposals Tax is often not being paid, further diverting money away from the economy and essential public services.

By engaging those involved in the illegal disposal of waste, you risk harming your business’s reputation and finances

To find out more, about how this might affect your business/organisation, join HMRC, the Environment Agency and partners at our educational webinar on 25 September 2024.

What is happening?

• Waste is being disposed of illegally.This can involve waste being:
• misdescribed when it is sent to an authorised landfill site.
• disposed or diverted to an unauthorised waste site i.e. site with no licence to accept waste.
• abandoned at rented commercial premises, leaving the property owner with the responsibility and cost of disposing of the waste legally.
• exported illegally; thus, you could inadvertently be linked to wider criminality.

Who is doing it?
We are aware that criminal gangs are responsible for much of the waste that is disposed of illegally, and their involvement is driven by the large profits they can make from this activity. They offer to dispose of waste at a low-cost, much lower than the rates charged by reputable firms.

Fraud provides an unfair advantage to criminal gangs. The involvement of a criminal gang will rarely be apparent when someone approaches you offering to supply low-cost waste disposal services or seeking to rent space in your premises. The individuals contacting you on behalf of these criminal gangs will often appear to be plausible.

Sometimes, claims made by apparently respectable waste companies about the extent to which they recycle waste are exaggerated and waste they say will be recycled is sent to landfill and misdescribed or diverted elsewhere illegally.

The cost of clearing illegally dumped waste and repairing environmental damage can be substantial. These costs can fall on landowners, associated businesses, local councils or on the Government, in which case they represent a drain on taxpayer-funded public money.

Risks to your Business/Organisation

Rarely do businesses/organisations intentionally engage illegal waste management firms, however those that turn a blind eye to the possibility of illegality, could facilitate the operation of criminals, indirectly supporting their wider illegal activities.

If it is found that the waste company you use is disposing of your waste illegally, you could become liable for the evaded landfill tax, plus interest and penalties.

Steps you can take
If your business/organisation engages waste companies to dispose of your waste or if you rent space in your premises, please consider.
1. Joining our educational webinar to attain a greater understanding of the risks and some of the steps you can take to mitigate them.
2. Share this fraud alert with those within your business/organisation who are responsible for contracts for waste disposal services or who may be approached by people who seek to rent space in your premises. You may also wish to share this fraud alert with other businesses in the Waste Sector who may find its content useful.
3. Verify the claims made by waste companies by asking to see returns that they submit to the Environment Agency.
4. Ensure you have robust checks in place to satisfy yourself that they are a legitimate business, thus allowing you to verify that their claims are true.
5. Where prices being quoted seem too good to be true, you should ask yourself how the person quoting those prices can make a commercial return on the transaction.
6. Don’t ignore any risks that you identify. Act to mitigate or remove the risk completely.
7. Monitor and review your suppliers on a regular basis; you must decide what is reasonable and proportionate for your own business/organisation.

Join the webinar

How to report any concerns
If you have a concern, please quote – ‘Waste Management’ to either: Report Tax Fraud – www.gov.uk/report-tax-fraud or Crimestoppers -
Call anonymously any time, day or night, any day of the year, on 0800 555 111