The owner of a Cotswold industrial estate who has been linked to the notorious Kinahan cartel has sparked fury by burning ‘toxic’ waste on giant bonfires at the site every day for a week.
Locals have been locking themselves indoors and many have reported being violently sick and experiencing severe chest problems as a result of inhaling the thick black smoke billowing from the fires in Tetbury, just a mile from King Charles‘s Highgrove home.
The 10-acre industrial site is owned by Windsor-based Fred Doe Sr, who has been trying to sell the sprawling complex of run-down, asbestos-lined units for more than 18 months.
In the past year, two illegal cannabis factories have been uncovered at the site, one of which caught fire as the growers fled, triggering a police helicopter search for the culprits.
Mr Doe has denied any knowledge of his buildings being used to grow these substances.
This week, the millionaire caravan tycoon further infuriated locals by sending a team of men with 10-tonne diggers and dumper trucks to the town to collect and burn industrial waste from the complex.
Residents living in properties just yards from the raging bonfires have witnessed Doe’s workmen dumping rubber tyres, plastic and oil drums on the pyres. They fear asbestos from the dilapidated buildings has also been slung onto the fires.
When the Daily Mail visited this week, our reporter was shown photographs and videos shot by several residents showing the plastic, tyres and oil drums being loaded onto the dumper trucks.
A multi-millionaire caravan tycoon has been accused of ‘burning toxic waste’ at his estate in the Cotswolds
The 10-acre industrial site is owned by Windsor-based Fred Doe Sr, who has ‘links to the Kinahan cartel’
For over a week, the sight of red smoke in the sky has been a common one
Residents living in properties just yards from the raging bonfires have said they are now worried for their health and safety
One resident who photographed the activity claims they were immediately intimidated by Doe’s men who they claimed ‘walked towards him taking photographs’.
For seven days, the skies above Tetbury have been lit up by giant bonfires raging on wasteland at the industrial park, prompting more than 50 call-outs to Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Services and numerous visits to the scene by cops.
Thick, acrid smoke has been billowing across the site, enveloping a nearby care home, a nursery and hundreds of dwellings, causing panic among locals who fear their health may be compromised. Many have complained of breathing problems.
Cotswold District Council confirmed that council officers visited Tetbury Industrial Estate multiple times last week and have issued the owner of the site with a fixed penalty notice and a nuisance abatement notice, which the council said are all the actions available to it at this stage.
According to Companies House records, Tetbury Industrial Estate Ltd is owned by Sines Park Holdings Ltd, whose directors are listed as Fred Doe and Elaine Sines.
Although he has always denied it, Mr Doe has been linked to the Kinahan cartel, one of the world’s most fearsome crime syndicates.
Though he presents himself as a man of simple tastes living by ‘his traveller roots’ in a mobile home in one of his parks (albeit a very luxurious one close to Windsor Castle), by most people’s standards Doe’s life is extremely lavish.
Posts on his X feed shows him cruising through Belgravia in a £400,000 Rolls-Royce Cullinan, golfing with stars such as Gary Player, and taking high tea with his wife Elaine at the Dorchester hotel.
Certainly, Mr Doe has a colourful past. Almost a decade ago, a dramatic dawn raid was staged at his own luxury estate.
Doe Senior was then known as Maurice Sines and resided in a mansion at Wentworth, Surrey, the golf resort where celebrities such as Sir Elton John and the late Bruce Forsyth once lived.
He told the Daily Mail how armed police burst into his home while he and Elaine were sleeping and ‘pointed their guns at my head’, suspecting the fortune he has amassed from a residential park empire stretching from Norfolk to Dorset had been augmented by criminality.
Over 52 calls have been made to the local fire service in relation to the blazes
‘Fred’ Doe Senior, previously known as Maurice Sines, with his wife Elaine at the Dorchester Hotel in London
‘Fred’ Doe Senior with a collection of luxury cars, including a Rolls-Royce, outside his house
Residents say they’ve been unable to stop the workmen burning the waste and feel intimidated
Many of their houses back directly onto the site which they say makes just going outside dangerous and scary
At the heart of this accusation, which Mr Doe strongly denies, was his alleged link to the Kinahan gang.
He says his assets, including his fleets of luxury and historic cars, and a jewellery collection to rival that of the V&A, were frozen for five years after the police swoop.
During that time, he lived off a court-approved allowance and he says it was only after winning a £50million forfeiture case, nine years ago, that he could resume the lifestyle to which he has become accustomed.
In 2022, the Irish Criminal Assets Bureau identified the tycoon as being ‘linked’ to the Kinahan’s UK branch.
Police believe it was due to this link that the then Maurice Sines changed his name to Fred Doe to avoid being targeted by the UK’s National Crime Agency.
One resident of a nearby home wrote on Facebook, accompanied by video footage she shot of the thick smoke enveloping her and her neighbours’ homes:
‘The smell is unbearable and we can barely see out of our windows. This video was taken at 1634 brackets Monday. I called the fire service who were reluctant to come out as they had already visited the site this morning. We are contemplating leaving the house for the night…’
Another local ‘This is absolutely disgusting. When is something going to be done about this?’
‘I have photos of them clearing out a unit by scraping the rubbish out the main door of the unit with a digger bucket, loading it into a dumper truck and then they take it round to the fire.
‘Rubble bags, bin bags of rubbish, plastic buckets, plastic petrol cans, vehicle oil bottles, general waste all driven round to the fire to be burnt. How is that legal so close to housing, a nursery and a care home.
‘The smell got into our house today even with windows and vents closed. It was so bad, my son was sick because of the smell.
‘We couldn’t see out of our windows due to the thick black smoke bellowing towards our house.’
Thick, acrid smoke has been billowing across the site from the constant fires
The local fire department has said they will be investigating the activities closely
When the Daily Mail visited the site this week, locals spoke to us freely, but asked us not to publish their identities or photograph them because they are fearful of reprisals.
One said: ‘Mr Doe has literally and metaphorically cast a dark shadow across this beautiful town.
‘His industrial estate here has caused nothing but trouble since he bought it.
‘We’ve had cannabis farms, fires, noise pollution and now we have to put up with these toxic bonfires every day.
‘We’ve all been scared to leave our homes for a week because the smoke is so thick it chokes us. Lots of us have had chest pain and breathing problems that we’ve never experienced before.
‘And on one of the days, when the fire was particularly bad, I was physically sick several times after nipping out to the shops.
‘One woman on the housing estate next door packed her bags and took her family off to stay in an Airbnb for the week.
‘We can’t take our dogs out for walks and some people are even keeping their kids off school because they don’t want them inhaling the poisons from the fire when they walk there and back.
‘It seems pretty obvious Mr Doe is burning all his polluting waste, rather than pay specialist companies to take it away and dispose of it in a more environmentally-responsible – and legal – way.
‘Yet he’s a multi-millionaire so he could easily afford to do this the right way. It just shows he doesn’t care a jot for people.’
Another terrified local said: ‘I’ve seen all sorts of toxic waste going on these fires and the black smoke and stench that comes off them is horrific.
‘It’s been like a scene from a Hollywood disaster movie here for the past week, but no one is doing anything to stop them.
‘The cops and fire crews say they can’t do anything because it’s on private land and he’s hired men to keep an eye on it. That makes it a controlled fire, apparently. When I told the cops and firemen they were burning hazardous, toxic waste, I was told that wasn’t a matter for them and I had to call the council’s health and safety department instead. It’s an absolute joke.
‘Meanwhile, we’re all locked indoors with the windows closed and we can’t get outside to walk the dogs or take the children anywhere, not least school.
‘Mr Doe is being totally selfish.’
Mr Doe has been trying to sell the sprawling complex of run-down, asbestos-lined units for more than 18 month
The local MP for the area has also condemned the activities on the sprawling site
Another local resident who lives on a large, modern housing estate opposite the industrial estate, where homes sell for up to £750,000, told us: ‘I feel like gradually the fires are getting bigger and getting worse. The smell is like burning rubber with plastic. It smells toxic, it made us feel poorly.
‘You can smell it in your home even when windows and doors are shut. There’s thick, black smoke. I can’t see out of the windows.
‘Residents are concerned about the fires, children haven’t been outside because of the conditions. My cat has been stuck inside and my dog can’t be walked.’
She said some fires have begun in the morning and have continued into the evening, adding that she is worried that homes may be damaged.
‘We’re worried that ash and debris from the fire could set our homes on fire,’ she said. ‘I feel like the fire was at its worst on Monday (January 19).
‘We are concerned about the scale of the fires.’
And another said: ‘The first day it started, I was out walking my dog and it was all blowing over this way and towards the nursery. I remember thinking, “That’s not normal smoke, that is toxic.” I actually threw up on the grass, it was that bad.
‘I don’t suffer from headaches, but I had a headache all that day. It’s not just wood that they’re burning, they’re burning stuff that shouldn’t be burned. It’s toxic.
‘It’s quite frightening. A lot of kids live in this estate, and it’s just so dangerous. All it takes is for one ember to hit something, and the whole lot goes up. I don’t know how they’re allowed to get away with it.
‘Monday was absolutely awful, it was probably the worst it’s been. It was horrendous.
‘You couldn’t even see the houses. It’s getting quite depressing, actually.
‘It’s frustrating how the police aren’t doing anything about it. Someone said the fire service has a duty to put it out, but it keeps happening and I don’t think it’s down to them to keep coming out here to put it out. I find it really frustrating how no-one seems to care.’
Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service said it first received reports of fire at the industrial estate on Monday, January 12, and that 53 calls were made subsequently.
The fire service have attended the site on eight occasions, a spokesman said.
The representative for Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service added: ‘We first received reports of fire at Tetbury Industrial Estate in Cirencester Road on January 12, with a total of 53 calls made to our control room, between then and now.
‘We attended the site on eight occasions. This has not been a continuously burning fire. No 999 calls were received between 14 and 19 January, when our crews next attended the site.
‘Representatives from Cotswold District Council have visited the location to address environmental matters.
‘We remain in contact with partner agencies and will continue to support them as needed. Fire and safety advice can be found on our website, visit www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/glosfire/your-safety.’
Dr Roz Savage, the Liberal Democrat MP for South Cotswolds, said that a Fixed Penalty Notice has been issued as well as an abatement notice being served. This is a statutory notice to cease an activity or implement specific improvements.
Dr Savage said that the fires, thought to be controlled burns, have caused distress to residents and he has vowed to help residents feel safe in their own homes.
The MP said: ‘This situation has understandably caused real distress for people in Tetbury, and I completely share residents’ concerns about the impact on their health and quality of life.
‘I will continue to push for swift and decisive action until this activity is brought to an end and residents can once again feel safe and comfortable in their own homes.’
Mr Doe and his wife Elaine have numerous other business interests, including caravan parks and luxury car outlets.
Last year, locals living close to one of his other assets – a scrapyard in Eton – told the Daily Mail their houses had become unsellable due to his use of the site and their lives had been made a misery.
Doe, a member of the travelling community, had outbid Eton School for the small patch of land paying a staggering £783,000 for the privilege.
Residents say they watched in horror after the sale went through as trees were felled and the field has been slowly industrialised piece by piece, and they fear that each new shipping container or pile of scrap is taking chunks out of the value of their houses.
Before long, the field was replaced by a scarred landscape of craters and pools of stagnant water decorated with hundreds of cars, pieces of scrap metal and a horde of shipping containers.
Despite this massive change, Mr Doe had only submitted three planning applications to Windsor and Maidenhead Council despite the dramatic change in the use of the land in that time.
Last year, desperate homeowners near another of Doe’s sites said their houses had become unsellable
Google satellite images of the site prior to Doe’s ownership show rolling green fields and trees
The field was replaced by a scarred landscape of craters and shipping containers
In the centre of Mr Doe’s field sat a broken caravan left exposed to the elements
Residents living next to the site said they feel the council was too intimidated to clamp down on the rule-breaking despite the effect it is having on the area.
Speaking again under condition of anonymity, one resident said: ‘We all know it’s not right. How can it be?
‘But they get away with it and the council are either too scared to stop it or don’t want the aggravation. At the end of the day it’s us who suffer having to live next to that tip.’
Another resident, who gave his name as Robert, said that the acquisition by the Does had irreparably changed the area.
He said: ‘I’ve been here since 1991 and the difference from then till now is unbelievable. It was an orchard once and now its a scrap yard.
‘They bought it in 2020 and then destroyed it with a digger. And then suddenly there’s loads of huge shipping containers there and hundreds of cars. It’s like we’re living next to an airport car park.
‘Everyone around here has emailed the council to complain and they’ve done nothing. They’re scared of him.
‘It’s killed the prices of all the houses around here. They’re all unsellable. People take one look at that field and turn away.’
