Three Armagh men given suspended sentences for waste offences

Thomas Joseph Curran,48, Gerald Curran,42, and Barry Curran,37, of Blackwatertown Road, Armagh, had previously entered guilty pleas to waste offences, and today each received 25 month custodial sentences suspended for two years at Armagh Crown Court sitting in Newry. Barry Curran had also entered an earlier guilty plea to a fraud offence for which he received a concurrent custodial sentence of 25 months suspended for 2 years.

The investigation, carried out by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) uncovered significant fraudulent offending regarding the operation of an unlicensed waste business by the defendants.

The case relates to the unauthorised deposit, keeping, treating and disposal of 6836.395 tonnes of controlled waste at a site located at Blackwatertown Road, Armagh. 

During an inspection of the site in October 2017, NIEA Officers discovered a large amount of mixed waste in the yard adjacent to the dwelling house and stacked into the large sheds located on the site. In addition, baled waste was observed in a shed next to the office, and numerous pieces of waste processing equipment including material handlers, balers, shredders, skips, ejector trailers and a trommel waste sorting machine were located on the site. Checks revealed that the site had been operating without a waste licence since 2014.

A Proceeds of Crime investigation is ongoing.

Notes to editors: 

1. The various parties were sentenced under the following Articles of the Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997:

Barry Curran, Gerald Curran and Thomas Joseph Curran each plead guilty to:

Article 4(1)(b) relating to keeping controlled waste or knowingly causing or knowingly permitting controlled waste to be kept on lands at Blackwatertown Road, Armagh except under and in accordance with a waste management licence.

Barry Curran also plead guilty to:  

Article 4(1)(a) depositing controlled waste, or knowingly causing or knowingly permitted controlled waste to be deposited in or on any land, at Blackwatertown Road, Armagh without there being in force a waste management licence authorising said deposit, and:

Under Section 2 of the Fraud Act 2006, contrary to section 1 of the Fraud Act 2006:-

Dishonestly made a false representation, namely, began trading as Armagh Recycling Ltd purporting to be in a position to continue  with the services previously provided by Armagh Recycling and Skip Hire Ltd, which company had been a licensed waste management business up until revocation of its waste management licence on the 25th July 2014 notwithstanding the fact that Armagh Recycling Ltd did not hold the relevant waste management licence and continued to use the waste transfer licence granted to Armagh Recycling and Skip Hire Ltd thereby presenting Armagh Recycling Ltd as a licensed waste carrier when Armagh Recycling Ltd in fact held no such waste transfer licence, with the intention, by making the representation, to make a gain for himself or another or to cause loss to those persons or companies engaging waste removal services or to expose them to a risk of loss.

Three further charges against the defendants were left on the books.

If charges are ‘left on the books’; they can be reactivated at a later stage, subject to permission from the Crown Court or the Court of Appeal.

2. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook at and

3. All media queries should be directed to the DAERA Press Office

4. The Executive Information Service operates an out of hours service for media enquiries only between 1800hrs and 0800hrs Monday to Friday and at weekends and public holidays. The duty press officer can be contacted on 028 9037 8110.

Share this page