Five people suspected of alleged fraud at Bristol Waste have been referred by police to the Crown Prosecution Service. Avon & Somerset Constabulary has completed its investigation into former employees of the Bristol City Council-owned company.
The inquiry centres around allegations dating back to 2020 that individuals who were working for the firm at the time took payments to misreport the amount of waste being brought into the business’s Avonmouth depot. Officers have quizzed six people – five men and one woman – who attended voluntary interviews at a police station since the start of the probe.
The force has now referred the names of five of them to the CPS to consider whether to charge them with criminal offences. The sixth person is no longer part of the investigation.
An Avon & Somerset Police spokesperson said: “Six people have attended voluntary police interviews in connection with an investigation into alleged fraud at a waste depot in Avonmouth. The case has been referred to the Crown Prosecution Service to consider a charging decision against five individuals.
“No further action will be taken against the sixth person.” The investigation was first announced publicly in March 2023 at a Bristol City Council meeting by the then-chairman of the overview & scrutiny management board Cllr Tony Dyer (Green, Southville) who is now the authority’s leader.
Six months later, police confirmed that a man in his 40s and another in his 30s had been interviewed voluntarily. In February 2024, the constabulary said three more people had done likewise, and in July it said a sixth person, a man in his 50s, was the latest to do so.
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Bristol Waste and the council have been assisting officers with their inquiries. The company previously said it took immediate action to tighten up security at the depot in Kings Weston Lane after the allegations came to light and that it handed over all potential evidence to police.
Speaking at the scrutiny committee meeting last year, then-deputy mayor Cllr Craig Cheney said the local authority expected Bristol Waste to “continue to remain vigilant and take immediate action where necessary” against suspected fraudulent activity.