THE boss of a landfill site who ran a £900,000 fraud cheating taxpayers and his bosses has been jailed for two years.

Malcolm Smart, of Broad Town, organised the under-weighing of lorry loads of waste arriving at the tip in exchange for kick backs from customers.

And his colleague, Victor Millen, who operated the weighbridge, was jailed for 16 months for his part in the scam.

Smart, 51, was employed as site manager at the Sand Farm Landfill Site, in Sand Pit Road, Calne, along with 64-year-old Millen, of Blunsdon .

Brendon Moorhouse, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court Smart’s employer, Viridor, became concerned about what was going on in late 2009.

He said lorries and dustcarts paid by weight to dump their loads at the site, with active waste being charged at 10 to 20 times the price for inert waste.

Covert surveillance of the amounts going through on a day in October 2009 revealed at least three loads were under-weighed, costing the firm £3,500.

A few days later auditors went to the tip and noticed the takings rocketed when they were there, and fell again when they left.

Both men were spoken to by bosses and then the police, and admitted what they had done.

Smart, who was on a salary of almost £35,000, said he had told his colleague to under-weigh lorries for about six months, saying he received nothing for it.

Millen, who was on a salary of more than £22,000, said they had done it for three years, during which time he received envelopes of cash from Smart totalling between £10,000 and £20,000.

Mr Moorhouse said the three ways they cheated their bosses was by under weighing the loads, misclassifying waste and ignoring vehicles arriving at the site.

Smart, of Broad Town Road, Broad Town, and Millen, of Ermin Street, Blunsdon, both admitted conspiracy to defraud. They admitted that between April 2007 and October 10, 2009, they cost the company £907,255; of which £200,000 was in landfill tax and VAT.

Rob Ross , for Smart, said: “He had been approached by a company to do one of two things, undercharging or under-weighing.”

He said there were more people involved but just the two men in the dock facing the music.

After running the scam for one business it spread to others and his motivation for starting was to keep business at the site going.

Mike Pulsford, for Millen, said although his client played a key role in the conspiracy he was brought into it by his co-defendant.

An investigation was launched into seven directors of waste companies who may have benefited from the scam, but no charges were brought against any of them.