SCOTLAND's top prosecutor has called for special courts to deal with the country's environmental criminals.
Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland believes real judicial focus on the rising toll of green offending would send "a powerful message" to gangland and other polluters.
The law officer's suggestion will be discussed early in 2015 by Scotland's environmental crime task force, which brings together police, prosecution, councils, government and green watchdogs.
Mr Mulholland said: "It doesn't need to be a shiny new building with new administrators and clerks, just order the business in a particular way to give a focus on certain days to environmental crime."
His remarks suggest a get-tough attitude to green crime in the new year as Scottish authorities try to deal with mushrooming illegal tips and as gangsters muscle in on the waste industry.
He also mooted the possibility of other measures against polluters, including clean-up orders and newspaper adverts to name and shame those convicted of such crimes.
Mr Mulholland added: "I am not a politician, it is not my job to decide what should happen going forward, but I throw these suggestions out there for consideration as to how to increase the risk of getting caught to make environmental breaches really unattractive."
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency or SEPA is working increasingly closely with Police Scotland as they try to identify criminalised companies.
Its executive director, Calum MacDonald, who chairs the Environmental Crime Task Force, said: "We would be happy to engage in any future consultation with the government on proposals for the creation of an environmental court, or for specialised environmental sheriffs, and this important issue will be discussed at the next task force meeting in 2015."
Scotland already has specialist courts dealing with domestic abuse.
Court reform legislation going through Holyrood will create another specialist tribunal for personal and workplace injuries.
Government insiders say an environmental court would have to wait until these latest reforms are completed.
Prosecutors have sought to use their entire toolbox against environmental criminals in recent years, using proceeds of crime legislation to secure dirty money.
However, around a dozen organised crime groups are now believed to be involved in environmental crime, including running landfill sites that many assume are legal.
Such waste crime is now thought to be worth £30m with the environmental damage done far in excess of that figure.
Detective Chief Superintendent John Cuddihy late this year said: "If you drive down the M74, you can smell the landfill sites.
"When you start to see diggers and when you start to see the landscape changing, then organised crime will try to move in.
"They will procure a piece of land, not necessarily for planning permission.
"It's not for houses. They are doing it to bury underneath it."
Typically criminal organisations will use sites with limited permits for the storage or transfer of waste, such as former collieries or railway cuttings, so they can claim some legitimacy when collecting rubbish from non-criminal companies.
As landfill taxes rise, it is becoming increasingly lucrative for gangland firms to avoid paying it, undercutting their rivals. Sepa officials admit the tax, which they support and will shortly collect, is incentivising criminality.
Some talk of new focus on legitimate businesses who do not ask questions of waste operators offering deals that, given the high taxes, are just too good to be true.
Mr Mulholland's Crown Office already has a specialist prosecutor for wildlife and environmental crime. Green offending is far from restricted to landfills. Illegal fishing, criminal polluting and other complex crimes require sheriffs, say insiders, who can understand nuances in regulations.
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