Two waste companies have been fined thousands of pounds for illegally tipping waste on the flood plain near the River Medway.

Fastrac Contractors and Utilities Limited, based at Cuxton Industrial Estate, in Station Road, were found guilty in their absence and fined £40,000 for dumping the waste.

The company was also ordered to pay with £1,650 court costs, when the case was heard at Sevenoaks Magistrates Court.

Bennett Grab Services, of Burleigh Sole Street, Cobham, were also fined for the same offence but pleaded guilty dumping waste and rubble and were fined £2,000, and had to pay £404 in court costs.

Charges were brought against both firms when an Environment Agency investigation discovered building waste and rubble being dumped at River House, Station Road, Cuxton, which was not covered by an environmental permit.

The court heard during a site visit in 2013, Fastrac company director Paul Davies admitted to having tipped 80 loads of waste at the site; the Environment Agency issued a letter requiring Fastrac to stop dumping waste at the location until the firm got the appropriate permission.

However, in November 2013 after no further information had been supplied by Fastrac so the Environment Agency served statutory notices on both Fastrac and the landowner to provide waste transfer information about wastes dumped at this site.

These revealed that a further 47 lorry loads of waste had been received at the site since the letter sent in July 2013.

In interviews, Mr Davies said that the landowner was a friend of his who had asked him to fill in some land, stating his organisation did not tip waste at the site after the date of the warning letter but that waste materials taken from third party construction sites were being stored there.

He later conceded he had tipped nine loads at the site and he now understood by doing this he had committed an offence.

Magistrates found the continued dumping of rubbish had been a deliberate act by the company and there had been a risk of harm to the environment.

The agency’s investigation also discovered Bennett Grab Services had deposited soil at the same location.

In sentencing Bennett Grab Services, magistrates said they took into consideration their early guilty plea but said a firm in the waste business should be aware of the checks needed to be made to ensure a site was properly authorised before dumping waste on it.

Alan Cansdale, from the Envorment agency said: “The court heard how waste crime can undermine legitimate businesses and damage the environment.

“The illegally tipped waste in Cuxton compromised the flood plain around the River Medway.

“Without an environmental permit application, no assessment had been made regarding the impact of deposits in this area of flood plain and the potential to exacerbate flooding elsewhere.

“In cases like this, where individuals or businesses operate illegally, the Environment Agency has no hesitation in prosecuting.”