Michael Adrian Anthony to fight dumping charges, plead guilty to planning breaches

A prominent property developer will contest a charge of intentionally polluting the environment, a court has heard.

DARWIN property developer Michael Adrian Anthony will contest a charge of intentionally polluting the environment while pleading guilty to breaching the Planning Act, a court has heard.

The charges relate to the alleged dumping of more than 13,000 cubic metres of waste material at a property on Mavie St, dating back to 2015, “significant amounts” of which allegedly ended up in Darwin Harbour.

Anthony and his company, DWD Projects, last month lost an appeal against earlier convictions and $300,000 in fines for failing to comply with a clean up order for the site in 2020.

On Tuesday, the businessman again fronted the Darwin Local Court where his lawyer, David Robinson, said his clients would plead guilty to the planning breaches but wanted them to be heard by the same judge in the Supreme Court.

But Mr Robinson said while he had “already conceded there was sufficient evidence to justify the pollution case going to the Supreme Court”, some issues were still very much in dispute.

“I can indicate to your honour that the matters have overlapping facts, totality will be an issue,” he said.

“And also the ancillary orders sought by both the EPA and the (Development) Consent Authority overlap as well and that is likely to be a hot contest.”

Prosecutor Jon Bortoli agreed there was “obviously going to be some overlap when it comes to sentencing and it would be ideal that one court hears the lot”.

“Of course, if there’s a not guilty finding on the trial with the pollution charges, the Supreme Court may not want to determine the sentence on the planning charges and send it back,” he said.

A Local Court ruling on the admissibility of some evidence remains outstanding and judge Tanya Fong Lim adjourned the case for further mention on July 13.