Fine for burying tanker of fuel

A large hole in the tanker had been plugged with a sack

A demolition company has been fined £8,235 after trying to get rid of a fuel-filled tanker by burying it.

LA Moore, of Market Place, Warminster, was fined £3,000 and ordered to pay £5,235 costs after pleading guilty at Yeovil magistrates court.

The court heard the site near Wells where the tanker was buried lies within a groundwater protection zone and supplies water to nearby houses.

When the tanker was dug up it was found to have serious damage and had leaked.

Buried tanker

The court heard LA Moore bought the tanker in the mid 1990s and filled it with fuel to heat its vehicle workshop at Haybridge.

The Environment Agency, which brought the case, said the tanker could hold about 3,000 gallons of oil.

When the agency's crime team arrived on 16 February 2008 they were shown to a yard where a small section of the buried tanker was showing above the ground.

It was found to hold a "thick viscous black oil". When it had been dug up the team noticed a large sack had been used to plug a hole in the main tank.