Fly-tipping has blighted Britain’s roads for decades, with organised criminals in recent years muscling in on the disposal of often dangerous waste.
However, those gangs could soon get more than they bargained for when they tip rubbish along secluded roadsides: crack teams of special forces veterans, who cut their teeth in Afghanistan and Iraq, are likely to jump up from behind the hedgerows.
Local authorities are increasingly turning to a security company that specialises in employing former elite members of the armed services to battle the often violent gangs that have moved into fly-tipping.
• Fly-tippers avoid any fine or prosecution in 99% of cases
Subrosa Group, which specialises in “business intelligence” and “specialist security”, is working with about ten local councils and waste-management companies seeking to crack down on fly-tippers. Four years ago, it created a full-time unit of former SAS and special reconnaissance regiment personnel to act as “surveillance operatives”.
Senior figures at the company said they decided to create the unit — which has between four and eight members — amid fears among local councils that government action against fly-tipping was nearly non-existent and that it was in danger of becoming decriminalised.
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Niall Burns, Subrosa’s chief executive, said elite fighters from the armed forces were providing crucial skills in the battle against fly-tippers, who were constantly coming up with fresh tactics. “They’ve got the money, they’ve got the resources, they’ve got the wherewithal,” he told The Observer.
Speaking to The Times, Burns said one technique that criminal gangs used was to create false bottoms in lorries that were filled with illegal waste.
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Burns, a former Royal Marine, said that some of his team had experience of army operations in Northern Ireland, while younger members had undertaken reconnaissance operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. “The ability to create covert hides and camouflage yourself is a critical skill,” he said.
An unidentified senior manager at Subrosa told The Observer that the company’s former special forces personnel were “secreted in the undergrowth” around waste sites.
Last April, a report from the National Audit Office said that while officials at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs understood “the nature and complexity of waste crime”, they lacked the data “to identify and assess the full extent of all waste crime”. It also said there was strong evidence that fly-tipping was increasing.
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It blamed the rise in part on rising landfill taxes intended to reduce the amount of waste generally.
The Environment Agency said its waste crime unit was having some success and 51 arrests had been made since 2020.
