A Cornwall property developer has been given a suspended prison sentence and ordered to clear at least 25,000 tonnes of illegally deposited waste from land near Newquay.
Paul Stephens, 58, was sentenced at Truro Crown Court on 27 October 2026 following an Environment Agency investigation into the Hendra Croft site on Scotland Road. Waste found at the site included asbestos-containing material, mattresses, electrical items, plastics and construction debris.
Sentence and clean-up order
Stephens received a 13-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, alongside a curfew from 7pm to 7am for four months and 180 hours of unpaid work. He was disqualified from acting as a company director for four years and ordered to clear the site within 12 months.
Park Lane Financial Management Limited, the company involved in the offending, was fined £90,000. The company pleaded guilty to three environmental offences relating to an unauthorised waste operation and burning waste. Stephens pleaded guilty to offences involving the illegal deposit and burning of waste. Three other counts were left to lie on file.
The offences covered a period from November 2018 to July 2025. According to Companies House, Stephens resigned as a director of Park Lane Financial Management Limited in April 2026, after the period covered by the charges.
What investigators found
During a 2023 inspection, Environment Agency officers identified a 30-metre-long pile of waste, including household rubbish in bags left directly on bare ground. Further excavation revealed buried construction and demolition materials, including wood, metal and plastic.
The Environment Agency said the deposits posed a risk to human health and the environment, including the possibility that pollutants could enter the ground and water table. Its statement did not establish that groundwater contamination had actually occurred.
Previous asbestos conviction
The latest court case follows a separate prosecution of Stephens over asbestos management during the 2020 demolition of the former Cliffdene Hotel in Newquay. In April 2024, he pleaded guilty to an offence under asbestos regulations and was fined £65,813 at Truro Crown Court, with additional costs.
Reporting from the latest hearing by Cornwall’s Voice newspapers says the prosecution suggested that some asbestos waste at Hendra Croft was likely to have come from the Cliffdene demolition. That was a prosecution assertion, not a confirmed finding about the origin of the material.
Environment Agency response
Tim De Winton, an Environment Agency area environment manager, said the case involved waste that had been deliberately dumped, buried and burned with little regard for the environmental consequences.
The clear-up order means Stephens must address the waste at Hendra Croft within a year of sentencing. The Environment Agency has not published a verified cost for the remediation or confirmed whether any work has yet begun.
