A waste site operator in Cheltenham has been fined £12,000 and ordered to pay £33,610.06 in costs plus a £2,000 statutory surcharge over the disposal of red diesel, the Environment Agency said on 26 October 2026. J. Gilder Earthmoving and Aggregates Ltd was sentenced at Gloucester crown court on 5 October 2026 for unlawfully discharging red diesel onto the ground on or before 17 November 2022, having earlier pleaded guilty. Judge Rupert Lowe described the offence as a deliberate attempt to get around the law.

The court heard that during an unannounced HMRC visit to the Lower Slaughter site on 17 November 2022, inspectors were kept waiting for more than two hours before entry was granted. Red diesel was emptied from a screening machine, and two large puddles of fuel were later found on the ground. The Environment Agency took soil samples, and around 3.5 tonnes of the most contaminated soil was removed to limit the risk of seepage into groundwater. HMRC separately fined the company over the unlawful use of red diesel.

According to the agency, it has secured almost 250 prosecutions for waste offences across England since 2023, with fines of more than £2.2m and nearly 90 custodial or suspended prison sentences. In 2024/25 it closed 743 illegal waste sites, 143 of them high risk.