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Hugh O'Donnell jailed for illegal waste site near Reading Hugh O'Donnell jailed for illegal waste site near Reading
(about 2 hours later)
A man from Berkshire has been sentenced to four years in prison for dumping waste and money laundering. A crime boss who ran an illegal waste site has been jailed for four years - just a day after being released from prison for a firearms offences.
Hugh O'Donnell, 63, led a group who dumped building waste at an illegal site near Reading, between 2006 and 2008. Hugh O'Donnell, 63, laundered millions of pounds in profit by leading a group who dumped building waste at a site near Reading, between 2006 and 2008.
The Environment Agency said it was the biggest court case it had ever brought.The Environment Agency said it was the biggest court case it had ever brought.
O'Donnell, of Andrews Close, Reading, and two other men from the town had earlier pleaded guilty at Isleworth Crown Court to two charges. O'Donnell, of Reading, and two other men from the town pleaded guilty at Isleworth Crown Court to two charges.
O'Donnell, along with Peter Lavelele, 28, of Blenheim Terrace; and Robert Evans, 61, of Lynmouth Road, admitted acquiring, using and possessing criminal property and depositing, without licence, controlled special waste, in or on land. The court heard how O'Donnell's illegal waste business netted millions of pounds of profit by taking skips or lorry loads of construction and demolition waste into the Aldermaston site to be dumped in an illegal landfill.
Unlicensed handgun
During a raid by the Environment Agency and Thames Valley Police on the illegal waste site in 2008, an unlicensed handgun, ammunition, stolen vehicles and more than £50,000 were seized.
O'Donnell, of Andrews Close, received a four and a half year prison sentence for possession of the firearm in 2009.
He was released from prison on Thursday but then received his latest sentence for money laundering and waste offences, the following day.
O'Donnell, along with Peter Lavelle, 28, of Blenheim Terrace; and Robert Evans, 61, of Lynmouth Road, admitted acquiring, using and possessing criminal property and depositing, without licence, controlled special waste, in or on land.
A fourth man originally arrested was released without charge.A fourth man originally arrested was released without charge.
Lavelele was sentenced to 18 months in prison and Evans was jailed for two years. Lavelle was sentenced to 18 months in prison and Evans was jailed for two years.
O'Donnell, who has previously been jailed for six months for waste offences, used Lavelle and Evans to set-up and run the day-to-day operations of a string of fake businesses in a bid to avoid detection, by using aliases and intimidation, the court heard.
The Environment Agency used forensic techniques including DNA and handwriting analysis, fingerprinting, mobile phone and laptop interrogation to track members of the gang.
Activity on the site stopped in late 2008 after the arrest and imprisonment of O'Donnell for possession of the illegal firearm.
'Deliberate and calculated''Deliberate and calculated'
When the Environment Agency and Thames Valley Police raided the site O'Donnell was using, near Aldermaston, in September 2008, officers seized £45,000 in cash. Sentencing the three men, Judge Edmonds, QC, said: "This is deliberate and calculated offending on an industrial scale for profit.
A spokeswoman for the agency said O'Donnell was the landowner of the site and he allowed skip waste to be sorted and disposed there in a landfill and by burning.
He also allowed lorry loads of construction and demolition waste to be buried in the landfill.
She said he also instructed others to set up phoney companies and alias names to hide his involvement in the crimes.
Sentencing the three men, the judge said: "This is deliberate and calculated offending on an industrial scale for profit.
"You carried carried on in spite of efforts to stop you and with the clear intention of making as much criminal profit out of the offences as you could before you were stopped.""You carried carried on in spite of efforts to stop you and with the clear intention of making as much criminal profit out of the offences as you could before you were stopped."
The Environment Agency's solicitor, Angus Innes, said the sentence sent a clear message to others contemplating waste crime. The Environment Agency's solicitor, Angus Innes, described their investigation as "one of the most biggest and most complex ever undertaken".
He said the sentence sent a clear message to others contemplating waste crime.
He said: "This is a clear deterrent for others, and there are many of them, in the illegal waste industry, that their activity will be closed down, their profits will be taken, and they'll end up in jail if they don't stop."He said: "This is a clear deterrent for others, and there are many of them, in the illegal waste industry, that their activity will be closed down, their profits will be taken, and they'll end up in jail if they don't stop."
The land had been ranked as the South East's highest risk and highest priority illegal waste site.
Restraint orders, preventing the disposal of over £1m worth of assets, have also been in place for the past two years.