The Weiden Regional Court sentenced the former managing director to four and a half years in prison on Thursday, 22 October 2026. Dpa reports the verdict is not yet final.
A 57-year-old Czech man who organised the transports received two years on probation and must pay a fine to a nature park. Dpa says he organised deliveries in 20 cases.
Dpa counts about 620 tonnes of non-hazardous waste and 140 tonnes of hazardous waste from 30 transports, while Deutsche Welle reports a combined total of around 760 tonnes.
Dpa puts the cost at 600,000 euros for removing 600 tonnes, 100,000 of which the main defendant is to pay. BR cites the court's estimate of damage beyond 700,000 euros.
On Thursday, 22 October 2026, the Weiden Regional Court (Landgericht Weiden) sentenced the former managing director of a waste disposal company in the Upper Palatinate to four and a half years in prison. The court found that he knowingly and unlawfully had waste shipped abroad, and that he acted out of a desire for profit. He had admitted the allegations in principle at the start of the trial in June, and Bayerischer Rundfunk reports that he confessed during the proceedings. The ruling is not yet final, and prosecutors still face further fraud investigations linked to these cases.
His co-defendant, a 57-year-old Czech man who organised the transports, received a two-year sentence suspended on probation. According to Bayerischer Rundfunk, he also allegedly drove some of the runs himself and must pay a fine to a nature park in the Upper Palatinate. Dpa reports that he organised the deliveries in 20 cases, while the judgment was based on 30 transports in total.
The case came to light in the Czech village of Jiříkov, where mayor Barbora Šišková found an illegal dump shortly before Christmas 2024. According to Bayerischer Rundfunk, the heaps contained parts from dismantled wind turbines, plastics and battery residues contaminated with heavy metals. In January 2025 she stopped further trucks that were trying to unload and informed the authorities. BR notes that the affair is now two years old and still a source of anger in Czechia and the Upper Palatinate.
Dpa, citing the court, put the non-hazardous share at about 620 tonnes, mostly various plastics, and the hazardous share at about 140 tonnes, mainly batteries and the waste created from them. Deutsche Welle reported a combined total of around 760 tonnes. BR reports more than 700 tonnes plus a further 100 tonnes of batteries or battery residue that ended up in the Czech Republic and in Poland. The company, based in Weiden and the Schwandorf district, specialised in recycling parts of dismantled aircraft and wind turbines as well as old batteries. It is now insolvent and in liquidation, and the court said the director earned almost 400 euros per tonne.
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The Free State of Bavaria arranged for the waste to be retrieved and disposed of properly. Dpa gives the cost as 600,000 euros for removing 600 tonnes, of which 100,000 euros is to be paid by the main defendant. BR quotes the court as putting the damage to Bavarian taxpayers at beyond 700,000 euros, and says the defendant has already paid 100,000 euros in restitution. His business is insolvent, and he has also filed for personal insolvency. The two reports give different cost figures, and both are shown as the sources state them.
The verdict can still be challenged, so the sentences are not yet legally binding. Prosecutors are pursuing separate fraud investigations connected to these cases, according to BR. Jiříkov's mayor has expressed satisfaction with the ruling, BR reports. The case has run for about two years and still weighs on diplomatic relations between Bavaria and the Czech Republic.
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A Weiden court convicted a former waste firm director on Thursday, 22 October 2026, after more than 700 tonnes of waste were illegally shipped to Czechia and Poland. The verdict is not yet final.
AI text based on reports by Deutsche Welle, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Süddeutsche Zeitung and other publishers. Published .