Contractor fined 10,000 kroner for illegal earthworks

A contractor has been fined 10,000 kroner for continuing illegal earthworks on a nature-protected slope by Vejle Fjord, DR reports. The contractor has decided to pay the fine.

The case has now been formally concluded, according to a statement from South East Jutland Police.

The extensive work took place in spring 2025, when excavators and a bulldozer levelled the slope by moving 7,600 cubic metres of soil across the 3,800-square-metre property.

The land lies within the coastal protection line, meaning that moving any soil there requires permission. No application had been made and no permission had been granted.

The work was discovered after it triggered a landslide that damaged a sewage pipe. Vejle Municipality then ordered the contractor to stop immediately, but the work continued. The contractor was fined because of that violation, police said.

The owner of the slope had previously been fined 100,000 kroner for ordering and arranging the work. The owner was also ordered to restore the slope. That work was completed and approved in spring 2026.

The size of the owner’s fine has drawn political criticism. SF justice spokesperson Karina Lorentzen said it was not much compared with the damage caused to nature and questioned whether it would deter similar conduct. The prosecution service nevertheless assessed the fine as substantial.