For nearly a year, from November 2018, Joyners Plants Ltd published on this website a Press Release entitled “Environment Agency facing “an inconvenient truth” about waste transfer station at Cockwells Nursery, Totnes”. It concerned the successful prosecution of one of the owners of Cockwells nursery for environmental offences arising from waste material deposited by the tenants of Cockwells Nursery illegally.

Regrettably, in the Press Release, the owners of Cockwells Nursery wrongly accused Dylan Sadler, the Environment Agency solicitor who led the prosecution team, of serious professional misconduct including inducing a convicted criminal to concoct false evidence, pursuing a prosecution which had no prospect of success and thereby wasting large sums of government money and of being a solicitor willing to go to any length to obtain a conviction, whether fair or not.

Joyners Plants and the directors of Joyners Plants now accept that these allegations were false and without foundation and are pleased to take this opportunity to retract them and to apologise unreservedly to Dylan Sadler for the damage to his reputation and for the personal distress caused to him.

To demonstrate the sincerity of this apology, Joyners Plants have also paid Mr Sadler compensation and his legal costs.”