Lorries dumped waste on beach – as Sky News told gangs can ‘make millions’ from illegal tipping
On a bright but chilly February morning, around a dozen volunteers gather by the beachfront at Minster, on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.
In bobble hats and walking boots, they carry blue plastic bags and litter pickers.
They wander slowly past the dog walkers and brightly painted beach huts, combing the pebbles for waste. But the rubbish they’re looking for isn’t normal litter; it’s builders’ rubble and shredded household waste.
It was dumped en masse by the lorry load, at an illegal dump site further up the coast by Eastchurch Gap, between 2020 and 2023.
“It’s lots of guttering that washes up, whole pipes, tiny rawlplugs, decorators’ caulk, bits of plastic and cable ties – it’s disgusting,” says Chris, as he pulls out items from his bin bag – filled in just 20 minutes.
Much of the rubbish is builders’ waste
Locals says the dumping should have been clamped down on far quicker
Belinda Lamb, who organises the clean-ups, describes seeing “shredded Christmas trees, bits of carpet, even the spongy material from playgrounds”.
“It’s really sad,” she says. “It’s having a huge impact on marine life – and probably our lives – because if fish are eating this plastic, then so are we.”
Belinda Lamb says it’s ‘really sad’ and is affecting the sealife
They tell me that five years ago, lorries started turning up to tip waste over the cliffs at an illegal dump site a few miles away at Eastchurch Gap.
Day after day the vehicles arrived, leaving behind mounds of rotting rubbish and plastic that fills the shoreline, gets picked up by the sea and flung out by the waves further down the beach.
Locals are angry, and feel let down. Volunteers repeat their clean-up work monthly – but the sea keeps washing it in. They fear the area, a site of scientific special interest, will be like this for decades.
The area around Eastchurch Gap is a site of scientific special interest
“It should have been stopped immediately,” Elliott Jayes, the chair of Minster on Sea Parish Council, says.
“The Environment Agency should have been able to slap a stop notice on it, and it should then immediately stop and prosecutions start straight away.”
Investigations are ongoing at the site. In 2023, magistrates first granted the Environment Agency a six-month restriction order to close it down, which has since been extended.
The gate has been locked ever since, with concrete blocks installed to stop vehicles.
‘The new narcotics’
We don’t know who’s behind the Eastchurch Gap site, nor why they dumped the rubbish, but illegal tips are a huge problem across the country and one that’s increasingly being exploited by criminal gangs.
“What we’re seeing is actually more and more evidence of really serious organised criminal gangs operating in the waste sector, because it’s such a low risk, high reward activity,” explains Sam Corp from the Environmental Services Association.
Lorries chucked illegal waste over Eastchurch Gap for years
It’s something the previous head of the Environment Agency called “the new narcotics”, and Sam says waste criminals can be involved in multiple offences, from money laundering to human trafficking.
It’s thought one-fifth of all waste in England is being illegally managed. That’s around 34 million tonnes a year, enough to fill about four million skips.
It’s understood to cost the economy around a billion pounds a year, with a further £3bn thought to hit legitimate operators from missed business.
Forms of waste crime include fly-tipping to avoid paying tax or high processing costs, as well as illegal fires and exporting waste to other countries with looser regulations.
But criminal gangs are also a sizable part of the problem.
Gangs can get a waste licence for a few hundred pounds, says Mr Hayward-Higham
Chief innovation and technical development officer for Suez, Stuart Hayward-Higham, explains how the gangs operate.
“Imagine you’re a business, so I come along and I say, ‘I’ll pick up your waste and deal with it’.
“You pay me as though I’m going to treat it properly. So maybe £50 to collect it, manage it, and £100 to treat it. I pick it up and instead of spending the money to treat it, or recycle it, I just throw it on the ground somewhere.
“Then I keep all the profit.”
He says criminals can set themselves up with a licence to manage waste for as little as £154, making hundreds of thousands – even millions of pounds – in this manner.
‘Low fines not a deterrent’
Despite the scale of the issue, Sam Corp doesn’t believe the authorities have enough resources.
“A £1bn problem merits a lot more than the £10m that the Environment Agency gets to tackle this issue every year,” he says.
Illegal tippers see fines ‘as a legitimate business expense’
“We need regulations to be much tougher and stronger and more strongly enforced. And even if you do get caught, the penalties are far too low and they’re not enough of a deterrent.”
He says the criminals “see fines as a legitimate business expense”.
Of the 1,453 illegal dump sites recorded by the Environment Agency in the last decade, just 64 led to some form of enforcement.
Thirteen were prosecutions, 14 saw warning letters sent and 26 were logged as leading to “advice and guidance”.
Some 319 of the sites were thought to be linked to organised crime, 130 were hazardous waste, and 261 were in rivers.
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In response, an Environment Agency spokesperson called waste crime “toxic”.
“It causes widespread and significant harm to people, places, the environment, and the economy,” they said.
“We are determined to make life harder for criminals by disrupting and stopping illegal activity through tough enforcement action and prosecutions.
“Last year we successfully shut down 462 illegal waste sites, bringing the total number in operation to the lowest on record.”
The first thing you notice when immigration officers stop a possible illegal moped delivery driver is the speed in which the suspect quickly taps on their mobile.
“We’re in their WhatsApp groups – they’ll be telling thousands now that we’re here… so our cover is blown,” the lead immigration officer tells me.
“It’s like a constant game of cat and mouse.”
Twelve Immigration Enforcement officers, part of the Home Office, are joining colleagues from Avon and Somerset Police in a crackdown on road offences and migrants working illegally.
The West of England and Wales has seen the highest number of arrests over the last year for illegal workers outside of London.
“It is a problem… we’re tackling it,” Murad Mohammed, from Immigration Enforcement, says. He covers all the devolved nations.
“This is just one of the operations going on around the country, every day of the week, every month of the year.”
Murad Mohammed, from Immigration Enforcement, says his team are attempting to tackle the issue
Just outside the Cabot Circus shopping complex, we stop a young Albanian man who arrived in the UK on the back of a truck.
He’s on an expensive and fast-looking e-bike, with a new-looking Just Eat delivery bag.
He says he just uses it for “groceries” – but the officer isn’t buying it. He’s arrested, but then bailed instantly.
We don’t know the specifics of his case, but one officer tells me this suspected offence won’t count against his asylum claim.
Such is the scale of the problem – the backlog, loopholes and the complexity of cases – that trying to keep on top of it feels impossible.
This is one of many raids happening across the UK as part of what the government says is a “blitz” targeting illegal working hotspots.
Angela Eagle, the border security and asylum minister, joins the team for an hour at one of Bristol’s retail parks, scattered with fast food chains and, therefore, delivery bikes.
Border security and asylum minister, Angela Eagle, speaks to Sky News
She says arrests for illegal working are up over the last year by 51% from the year before, to more than 7,000.
“If we find you working, you can lose access to the hotel or the support you have [been] given under false pretences,” she said.
“We are cracking down on that abuse, and we intend to keep doing so.”
There are reports that asylum seekers can rent legitimate delivery-driver accounts within hours of arriving in the country – skipping employment legality checks.
Uber Eats, Deliveroo, and Just Eat all told Sky News they’re continuing to strengthen the technology they use to remove anyone working illegally.
But a new Border Security Bill, working its way through Parliament, could see companies fined £60,000 for each illegal worker discovered, director disqualifications and potential prison sentences of up to five years.
“I had them all in to see me last week and I told them in no uncertain terms that we take a very tough line on this kind of abuse and they’ve got to change their systems so they can drive it out and off their platforms,” the minister tells me.
Read more:
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The gig economy – so prevalent in every city – creates another incentive for those wanting to risk their lives coming to the UK illegally.
More than 20,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel to the UK in 2025 – a record number at this point of the year.
For some of those who arrive, a bike and a phone provide a way to repay debts to gang masters.
There were eight arrests today in Bristol, one or two taken into custody, but it was 12 hours of hard work by a dozen immigration officers and the support of the police.
As two mopeds are pushed onto a low-loader, you can’t help but feel, despite the best intentions, that at the moment, this is a losing battle.
We see the boat from a distance – the orange of the life jackets reflected in the rising sun.
And as we draw closer, we can make out dozens of people crowded on board as it sets off from the shore, from a beach near Dunkirk.
There is no sign of any police activity on the shore, and there are no police vessels in the water.
Instead, the migrants crammed into an inflatable dinghy are being watched by us, on board a private boat, and the looming figure of the Minck, a French search and rescue ship that soon arrives.
Minck, a French search and rescue ship, shadows the boat
The dinghy meanders. It’s not heading towards Britain but rather hugging the coast.
A few of the passengers wave at us cheerfully, but then the boat starts to head back towards the shore.
Sky’s Adam Parsons at the scene
As it nears a different beach, we see a police vehicle – a dune buggy – heading down to meet it.
Normal practice is for French police officers to slice through the material of any of these small boats that end up back on shore.
Two police officers get out of the buggy and wait. A police helicopter arrives and circles above, performing a tight circle over the heads of the migrants.
The police think they might be about to go back on to the beach; in fact, these passengers know that most of them are staying put.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The boat stops a short distance from the shore and four people jump out. As they wade towards the beach, the boat turns and starts to head back out to sea.
We see the two police officers approach these four men and have a brief conversation.
They don’t appear to check the bags they are carrying and, if they do question them about why they left the boat, it is the most cursory of conversations.
In reality, these people probably don’t speak French but they were almost certainly involved in arranging this crossing, which is against the law. But all four walk away, disappearing into the dunes at the back of the beach.
Read more:
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Why do migrants want to come to the UK?
We follow the boat as it chugs off in the direction of Britain, carrying around 50 people.
The Minck returns to shadowing its progress, but its job is limited to offering help if the boat gets into trouble.
Otherwise, if the engine keeps working, then this flimsy vessel will reach British waters in a few hours’ time.
UK
‘A constant game of cat and mouse’: Inside the police crackdown on illegal moped delivery drivers
The first thing you notice when immigration officers stop a possible illegal moped delivery driver is the speed in which the suspect quickly taps on their mobile.
“We’re in their WhatsApp groups – they’ll be telling thousands now that we’re here… so our cover is blown,” the lead immigration officer tells me.
“It’s like a constant game of cat and mouse.”
Twelve Immigration Enforcement officers, part of the Home Office, are joining colleagues from Avon and Somerset Police in a crackdown on road offences and migrants working illegally.
The West of England and Wales has seen the highest number of arrests over the last year for illegal workers outside of London.
“It is a problem… we’re tackling it,” Murad Mohammed, from Immigration Enforcement, says. He covers all the devolved nations.
“This is just one of the operations going on around the country, every day of the week, every month of the year.”
Murad Mohammed, from Immigration Enforcement, says his team are attempting to tackle the issue
Just outside the Cabot Circus shopping complex, we stop a young Albanian man who arrived in the UK on the back of a truck.
He’s on an expensive and fast-looking e-bike, with a new-looking Just Eat delivery bag.
He says he just uses it for “groceries” – but the officer isn’t buying it. He’s arrested, but then bailed instantly.
We don’t know the specifics of his case, but one officer tells me this suspected offence won’t count against his asylum claim.
Such is the scale of the problem – the backlog, loopholes and the complexity of cases – that trying to keep on top of it feels impossible.
This is one of many raids happening across the UK as part of what the government says is a “blitz” targeting illegal working hotspots.
Angela Eagle, the border security and asylum minister, joins the team for an hour at one of Bristol’s retail parks, scattered with fast food chains and, therefore, delivery bikes.
Border security and asylum minister, Angela Eagle, speaks to Sky News
She says arrests for illegal working are up over the last year by 51% from the year before, to more than 7,000.
“If we find you working, you can lose access to the hotel or the support you have [been] given under false pretences,” she said.
“We are cracking down on that abuse, and we intend to keep doing so.”
There are reports that asylum seekers can rent legitimate delivery-driver accounts within hours of arriving in the country – skipping employment legality checks.
Uber Eats, Deliveroo, and Just Eat all told Sky News they’re continuing to strengthen the technology they use to remove anyone working illegally.
But a new Border Security Bill, working its way through Parliament, could see companies fined £60,000 for each illegal worker discovered, director disqualifications and potential prison sentences of up to five years.
“I had them all in to see me last week and I told them in no uncertain terms that we take a very tough line on this kind of abuse and they’ve got to change their systems so they can drive it out and off their platforms,” the minister tells me.
Read more:
Welfare bill passes final Commons stage after another concession
Ex-Tory chairman defects to Reform
Wealth tax could be coming to the UK – what is it?
The gig economy – so prevalent in every city – creates another incentive for those wanting to risk their lives coming to the UK illegally.
More than 20,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel to the UK in 2025 – a record number at this point of the year.
For some of those who arrive, a bike and a phone provide a way to repay debts to gang masters.
There were eight arrests today in Bristol, one or two taken into custody, but it was 12 hours of hard work by a dozen immigration officers and the support of the police.
As two mopeds are pushed onto a low-loader, you can’t help but feel, despite the best intentions, that at the moment, this is a losing battle.
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