The prolific court botherer has been hauled before a judge again
Sam Hunter pictured in 2017(Image: Huddersfield Examiner)
The courts in our region see hundreds of faces every week, from young to old. They span all different backgrounds, and tales of their lives before succumbing to crime are told time and time again.
But sometimes, the court does not need the details, because it has heard it all before.
A familiar face appeared in the dock this week as a prosecutor told the court the terrifying – and quite frankly, bizarre – details of his latest crime. Samuel Hunter was jailed on Thursday, October 16 for five years and two months.
The court heard how he had stalked his ex-partner, her mother and a random man who he mistakenly believed was having an affair with the woman he loved. Hunter had tracked his ex-partner to an address she was regularly frequenting. The address actually belonged to her friend, but prosecutor Graham O’Sullivan said he had used Google Earth or similar, and focused in on the home of the unsuspecting man.
This is what prompted the start of an ordeal of tyranny on the man’s life. He was subject to many calls and text messages and began to fear for his partner after Hunter suggested he had her number. His heavies also appeared at the home of one of the man’s friends.
Hunter had also began a stalking campaign against his ex-partner and her mother, even going as far as tracking one of their cars. His workers also turned up to his former mother-in-law’s home three times.
Samuel Hunter(Image: West Yorkshire Police)
The stalking was not the only offence he had committed that he had turned up to court to be sentenced for. A judge heard sickening details of an assault he committed against his ex-partner when she refused to give him her phone. The notorious Holmfirth tip boss had also attacked a local resident and set his guard dogs on him after he caught him taking an image of a public bridleway.
These were not Hunter’s only crimes. Known to be a prolific court botherer, he has spent a lot of time in the dock.
In 2017, Hunter was handed a 26-week suspended sentence after illegally dumping waste on disused land. YorkshireLive reported at the time that Hunter had been running the former Hunter Group tip in Lockwood and had dumped waste at land in Horbury near Wakefield.
Sam Hunter pictured in 2017
He was found to have been storing waste near Bridge Road, despite having no environmental permits for the operation. There were several piles of mixed waste containing treated and untreated wood waste and plastics, and skips belonging to the Hunter Group or Huddersfield Skip Services, both of which were Hunter was involved with at the time.
Hunter claims the waste activities were allowed because they were covered by waste permitting exemptions, but the Environment Agency said the waste was being stored in breach of the rules and said there was too much of it, it was not of a type compliant with the exemptions, and it was stored for too long.
Hunter was told to clear the waste from the site, but inspections between October 2014 and January 2015 revealed that much of it remained. There were also signs that waste had been deposited into the ground, which was contaminated with plastic, glass, a trainer and mixed construction and demolition waste.
Sam Hunter received a suspended jail sentenced over this illegally dumped waste on land near behind Horbury Bridge Industrial Estate(Image: Environment Agency)
Hunter had also avoided £4,120 in permitting fees and £5,148 by not installing the correct surfacing to prevent pollution to the ground.
He once again appeared and avoided prison in June 2019 after attacking two Environment Agency officers. Officers were investigating illegal waste operations at 24/7 Concrete and Aggregates Recycling on Weaver Lane when Hunter attacked them.
He was sentenced to a community order which included a 21-day Thinking Skills programme and 80 hours of unpaid work. Hunter was also ordered to pay £50 compensation to each victim, £85 court costs and costs of £85 to the Crown Prosecution Service.
Sam Hunter arriving at Kirklees Magistrates Court, at an earlier hearing in 2017
In 2023 he was back in court again – this time with his mother Jacinta – for problems caused by his waste site going up in flames in 2016.
The blaze caused months of problems for the fire services, Kirklees Council and the Environment Agency, and cost taxpayers more than £1million. YorkshireLive reported at the time that the duo ignored warnings about fire risk at the site in Queens Mill Road.
They accepted they had kept waste which posed a fire risk in a manner likely to cause pollution or harm to human health. Following site inspections by the Environment Agency (EA) in 2015 and 2016, the site was found to be repeatedly in breach of its permit, as ‘huge piles of waste’ were found pushing against a perimeter fence which was broken in places, the EA said.
Shredded waste was found stored between a roofed area of the site and a wall, when it should have been in a building or held in bays.
The Environment Agency ordered the waste be moved and the fences repaired, but return inspections found that no improvements had been made. Following continued breaches of the permit, and concerns over the waste falling through the fence and potentially polluting a river, two enforcement notices were issued.
When advice had been given to make improvements, Samuel Hunter was verbally abusive to officers on more than one occasion.
Sam Hunter, outside court, wearing a jacket emblazoned with the name of one of his other companies
A further visit found waste being stored had increased significantly, was rotting and being stored in ‘large steaming piles’, the EA said. Hunter was also advised the site was a fire risk by West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service.
The pair were both given suspended sentences.
After years of avoiding prison and repeatedly appearing before judges in our region, menace Hunter has finally been put behind bars. He will spend at least half of this sentence behind bars, meaning the streets will be free of him for at least two-and-a-half years.
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