A 45-year-old haulage contractor who conned around £40,000 out of a water authority has been jailed for 18 months.

Reginald Rumbol obtained the cash by cheating Southern Water Authority into overpaying him for his services.

A judge considered whether Rumbol, a married father, could escape a prison sentence because of an almost three-year delay in his case being dealt with.

But after adjourning to consider the matter, Judge Michael Neligan decided that it did not amount to exceptional circumstances for him to suspend the sentence.

Maidstone Crown Court heard that the scam involved Rumbol, of Scarborough Drive, Minster, using fake documents and failing to use approved sites for dumping water board waste.

Stephen Chippeck, prosecuting, said Rumbol was a director and company secretary of St James Haulage Ltd, which was sub-contracted by Cleaning Services Group Ltd, to remove solid waste material from Southern Water sites.

Before September 1999, Rumbol was transport manager for Taylor Brothers. That company had the contract with Cleaning Services, but it changed when Rumbol established a new company.

One change was that there was no competitive tendering for the contract. Rumbol's Sheppey-based firm took over the contract and were paid by Cleaning Services Group to deal with the water company's waste.

Rumbol’s company was paid an agreed price per tonne for removing waste and Cleaning Services then invoiced Southern Water, adding on their own profit.

Mr Chippeck said there were two types of waste. Special waste had to be deposited at designated landfill sites because of its toxicity.

There was also general slag, which was also supposed to be deposited on landfill sites.

Before entering a site, lorries were weighed and drivers were issued with a ticket on which they recorded the weight of the lorry and the time and date of the visit. A record of the unladen weight was also made.

The tickets were assigned as part of a system used by the driver and the weighbridge operator. They would form the basis of applications for payments from Southern Water.

"The Crown's case is that in effect this fraud was carried out by forged tickets," said the prosecutor.

Extra cash was being made by claiming that more waste was being dumped than was the case. Rumbol was saving money for his company by dumping general waste in places such as farmland, avoiding landfill site fees.

"It gave them an extra degree of profit," said Mr Chippeck. There was no evidence that any lasting environmental damage was caused.

When questioned in late 2001, Rumbol admitted using forged tickets that had been supplied to him by a Southern Water employee. Everyone was aware of the practice, he claimed.

Mr Chippeck said Rumbol's claim that he had been assisted in carrying out the fraud by others in the industry was partly why the case had taken so long to reach a conclusion. After extensive investigations no evidence was found to support his claims.

On hearing a testimonial from Rumbol’s contractor father, also Reginald, about how the arrest had affected the family, Judge Neligan told him: “It is a complete family disaster, isn’t it?”

David Barnes, defending, said the delay in dealing with the matter had been “substantial and tortuous” and had consequences on Rumbol’s health.

He at first denied the allegations but in September admitted conspiracy to defraud.

Mr Barnes said neither Southern Water nor Cleaning Services Ltd made a loss.

St James Haulage Ltd had since gone into liquidation and Rumbol had been running a demolition company owned by his wife.

"He faces this allegation alone and he alone has been ruined by it," said Mr Barnes.

The judge said of the submission of exceptional circumstances: “One would hope that a delay between arrest and final disposal of all but three years was a situation that was exceptional. If it is run-of-the-mill, it would be a terrible position and experience shows that it isn’t.”

But he told Rumbol: "In a case where the scheme adopted by you resulted in a payment by the water company to your company of £40,000 that should not have been paid, I cannot avoid a prison sentence.

“I cannot find any exceptional circumstances that would enable me to suspend it.”

Rumbol was ordered to pay £1,270 towards prosecution costs and disqualified for four years from being a company director.