£14,000 fine for company operating illegal waste facility
Easy Skip Hire Ltd of Doncaster was sentenced at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court on 22 November 2013 for operating a waste transfer facility without an Environmental Permit. The company pleaded guilty at an earlier court hearing and was fined £14,000, ordered to pay £3,131.87 in costs, along with a £120 victim surcharge.
The charge was brought by the Environment Agency under Regulation 12(1) and 38(1)(a) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010.
In May 2012, Environment Agency officers made a routine visit to Easy Skip Hire Ltd based at Kiveton Park Industrial Estate, Sheffield, and noticed a mixture of household, commercial and industrial waste was being stored on site. The company did not hold an Environmental Permit to store waste at the site, but did hold S2 and T12 Exemptions that allowed it to have materials on site for refurbishing or repairing items such as discarded furniture, bicycles and garden tools.
Officers advised the director of the company that he would need an Environmental Permit to operate a waste transfer station. He stated that he was aware of this and that he was in the process of applying for planning permission on a different unit on the estate and thereafter would apply for a permit. During July and August 2012 officers revisited the site on numerous occasions and found various piles of waste was still being stored there. The company director was advised again about the limitations of the S2 and T12 Exemptions and the need to hold an Environmental Permit.
On 25 October 2012 an Enforcement Notice was served on the company requesting all documentation and waste transfer notes between 10 July 2012 and 25 October 2012. The Environment Agency did not receive these documents so officers visited the site again on 8 November 2012 and noticed it was locked up but the waste piles had reduced. Officers contacted the company director who stated he had found a new site. Another Enforcement Notice was issued to the company and on 16 November 2012 officers received a letter and the waste transfer notes.
Officers visited the site again on 20 December 2012 and found the waste had been cleared. In mitigation, the company was given credit for its early guilty plea.
Court orders £121,520 penalty for waste crime activities
Defendants have pleaded guilty to a number of charges brought by the Environment Agency for illegal waste site operations in Nottinghamshire. Concluding at Nottingham Crown Court on Friday 22 November, Bloom (Plant) Limited was fined a total of £21,000 and ordered to pay £25,000. Bloom Plant Limited were also ordered to pay a further £25,000 following an application made by the Environment Agency under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) reflecting the financial benefit obtained as a consequence of their criminal conduct.
John Kelvin ‘Kelly’ Bloom was fined £13,500, ordered to pay £20,000 in costs and £5,000 POCA. Richard James Morris was fined £4,000, ordered to pay £1,000 in costs and £1,000 POCA. Michael Bowness was fined £2,500, ordered to pay £2,500 in costs and £1,020 POCA. Additionally the Police had seized over £44,000 as a cash seizure from the home address of Kelly Bloom on the day of a joint raid by the Environment Agency and the Police.
The charges were brought by the Environment Agency under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2007 and 2010.
Key Activities
The case concerned the commercial operation of illegal waste sites for between 2009 and 2011. Bloom (Plant) Ltd, Worksop Waste Services Ltd, Kelly Bloom and Richard Morris were involved in repeated illegal burning of controlled waste which caused disruption to local residents, posed human health risks and caused pollution to the environment.
Bloom Plant Limited (BPL), tendered for and won a demolition contract at the former Dormer Tools site off Shireoaks Road, Worksop. They used this site as a base for an illegal waste transfer station and for burning waste. The Court was referred to a number of statements of local residents and business whose lives had been directly affected by the burning going on at the former Dormer Tools site. At the same time the company was running another illegal waste transfer station in Gamston. None of these sites had any form of environmental permit that would allow such activity.
Worksop Waste Services Ltd, another company run by Kelly Bloom and whose manager was Richard Morris, was also part of this illegal commercial operation, operating out of a site at Sandy Lane, Worksop, storing waste in unpermitted areas, burning waste and depositing waste for burning at the former Dormer Tools site. Additionally, part of the business of BPL concerned the crushing and subsequent onward sale of aggregate, typically used in construction projects. Crushed material found at the former Dormer Tools site was contaminated, including asbestos, plastic and electric cable.
Asbestos waste had been inappropriately stored in an exposed skip on the former Dormer Tools site and at the Sandy Lane site
In mitigation the Court were asked to give full credit for guilty pleas that had been entered and that Bloom Plant was a small company which has already suffered significant financial losses. Additionally, the defence argued this was not a case involving significant or lasting damage to the environment, nor had any clean-up costs been borne by the public.
Other mitigation factors included previous good character of the defendants, Kelly Bloom’s poor health, the guilty plea of Richard Morris and that Michael Bowness had cooperated fully with the investigation.
HHJ Lea QC, in his sentencing remarks, stated that he considered this a serious case given the complete disregard for environmental legislation. This was the wholesale incineration of waste, not simply untreated wood but plastics and other deleterious material that would have caused a considerable nuisance if nothing else. The offending in relation to the asbestos was a significantly serious breach of the Regulations.
Man fined for aggression to Environment Agency officers
A man from Newcastle has been fined £300 after he became aggressive towards an Environment Agency officer during an investigation into the illegal burning of horse manure.
Thomas Trevor Findlay, 41, of Elston Close, Chapel House, Newcastle, was sentenced at Newcastle Magistrates Court on Monday 4 November, when he was also ordered to pay £500 in legal costs and a victim surcharge of £20. Findlay, who runs stables on Main Road, Dinnington, with his father of the same name, became aggressive towards investigating officers when they were following up complaints of burning at the site in March 2012.
When approached by an environmental crime officer, the defendant said he was burning manure. The officer explained that burning manure was illegal and that alternative disposal should be considered, such as land spreading. But Findlay became defensive and agitated, causing the officer to leave for personal safety reasons. As the officer was walking away, Findlay shouted at him: “If you come back here with the police, I’ll go for you.” While walking back to his vehicle, the officer noticed that he was being followed by the defendant in a car, travelling at walking pace.
Investigating officers returned in April, when they again faced further aggression. They were denied access to the rear of the site, from which smoke could be seen rising. A police officer attended in order to access the rear of the property, where horse manure could be seen burning. After a discussion Findlay said he had started the fire the previous day and apologised.
Findlay admitted one count of illegally burning controlled waste, and one count of obstructing an Environment Agency officer. For the burning offence, he was fined £100; for obstruction, he was fined £200.
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