Delivering a tougher environmental watchdog

As a result, a record $3.6 million in court-imposed fines and penalties were handed down. Licence breaches were the most common offence, closely followed by water and land pollution incidents.

The Land and Environment Court of NSW dealt with 62% of prosecutions, with the remaining cases brought in the Local Court.

One of the largest fines was handed to Ghossayn Group Pty Ltd and its sole Director George Ghossayn, totalling more than $680,000. These fines were for a range of offences including the unlawful transportation of approximately 1,200 tonnes of waste.

Repeat offenders, Mr Maher El-Masri and Mr Paul Mouawad, also known as Boulos Isaac, copped the highest fines for individuals and ordered to pay approximately $200,000 each for illegally dumping asbestos contaminated waste.

Other significant penalties included fines of $525,000 delivered to Carbon MF Pty Ltd for land pollution and failure to comply with clean up notice offences, and fines of more than $365,000 to Sydney Water Corporation for water pollution offences.

In April 2024, the NSW Government introduced changes to the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 (POEO Act) and other environmental laws, to strengthen penalties and the EPA’s powers to deter repeat offenders and make polluters pay.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Climate Change and the Environment Penny Sharpe:

“We have delivered on our election commitment to give NSW an EPA with teeth.

“This year we made the biggest changes to environment protection regulation in more than three decades and this is only set to further strengthen the work of our environmental watchdog.

“Those who ignore the rules threaten the health of our waterways, parklands, and beautiful landscapes and will not be tolerated.”