THE owner of Donegal’s largest waste disposal company has lodged an appeal in the Circuit Court against a conviction handed down last October when he was found guilty of large-scale illegal dumping.
Jim Ferry (55), owner of Ferry’s Refuse Ltd, was convicted and fined €12,000 at Letterkenny District Court and was also ordered to pay Donegal County Council a total of €30,750 in costs.
He was found guilty by Judge Paul Kelly after a dramatic and eventful three-day hearing which made local and national headlines.
The case followed an extensive undercover investigation into Ferry’s illegal dumping activities at lands he owned in front of his mother’s house at Derryreel, near Falcarragh.
The court heard that the father of six had previous convictions for illegal dumping.
Ferry of Rossbracken, Manorcunningham, was charged with eight counts of illegal dumping at Doire Uí Fríll, Falcarragh, on June 10, 2010.
Judge Paul Kelly was shown dramatic covert video recordings showing two of Ferry’s distinctive green and yellow bin lorries dumping waste in pits in the field before it was covered using a track digger.
The recording was made at around 5 am on the morning of June 10, 2010.
The recordings were made by Donegal County Council’s Waste Enforcement Officer, Mr Dearn McClintock, who was taken to the isolated location by an anonymous member of the public.
Ferry’s barrister, Mr Sean Gillane SC, asked that a number of the charges be struck out on a technical matter.
However, Judge Kelly refused the application.
No date has been set for the appeal hearing.
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