A Taichung man who rented a factory claiming he wanted to farm earthworms instead filled it with barrels of toxic waste, and an appeals court has now upheld his two-year prison sentence — bad news for him, worse for the landlord still stuck with the mess.

• The man rented a factory in Taichung's Qingshui district in 2021, telling the landlord he would shred wood to raise earthworms.
• He instead trucked in waste at night, including 104 barrels of toxic, flammable industrial waste plus plastic scrap, powders and construction debris.
• He paid only the first month's rent, and the dumping was only discovered when the landlord won a civil case and showed up with court officers and police to take the building back.
• On appeal he blamed a friend who has since died, saying he had handed over the keys while on the run from an arrest warrant.
• The court found the story inconsistent, noted the waste is still sitting there five years on, and rejected his offer to pay for cleanup as too little to earn leniency.

Outlook: He can still appeal again, but the waste remains uncleared and the cost of removing it is likely to fall on the property owner.