Suspended jail sentences for family members in connection with waste offences
A son and mother have been sentenced for illegal waste activities at a site in Huddersfield. The son and mother were director and manager of Hunter Group (Yorkshire) Limited, also known as Sam H Services Limited.
The company had premises in Huddersfield, and held an environmental permit, which applied conditions to ensure waste activities did not impact the environment.
Following site inspections by the Environment Agency in 2015 and 2016, the site was found to be repeatedly in breach of its permit, as huge piles of waste were found. The piled wate was pushing against a perimeter fence, which was broken in places. Shredded waste was found stored between a roofed area 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 permit breaches and concerns regarding waste falling through the fence and potentially polluting a river, two enforcement notices were issued. When advice had been given to make improvements, the son was verbally abusive to officers on more than one occasion.
A further visit found waste being stored had increased significantly, was rotting and being stored in large steaming piles.
In June 2016 another individual began running the company and site. On 18 August 2016, a fire broke out at the site and a large amount of runoff accumulated behind the premises of a nearby glass factory from firefighting activities. This posed a major concern as it was about to overflow into the river or flood the building, where the glass company had important compressor machinery. To avoid this, West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service deployed a small pump to move this runoff into the sewer network.
On 25 August 2016, Kirklees Council decided to bring machinery onto site to dig into the waste pile and move the waste around on the site to help the fire service extinguish the fire. The fire was still smouldering on the 30 August 2016.
It took Kirklees Council till March 2017 to remove all the waste from the site to reduce the risk of ongoing fires.
The defendants pleaded guilty to the waste offences and accepted they had kept waste which posed a fire risk in a manner likely to cause pollution or harm to human health.
Penalties
The son and mother were given a 24-month custodial sentence and 12-month sentence respectively, suspended for two years.
Additionally, the son is required to undertake 300 hours of unpaid work, the maximum number of hours a court can order. The mother must undertake 80 hours of unpaid work.
Lancashire waste criminal receives prison sentence
A prolific waste criminal has been sentenced to more than three years in prison. The waste criminal had failed to pay back money he made from his illegal waste activities.
In a case brought by the Environment Agency, the man was sentenced at Liverpool Magistrates Court on 7 September 2023, after a warrant was issued for his arrest when he failed to appear in court in July 2023.
Penalty
In January 2023, the man was ordered to pay £368,682.50, fixed by the total value of assets available to him at that time. The man failed to make this payment and was sentenced a further to 3 years and 5 months in prison.
The man had previously received a jail term of three years immediate imprisonment on 23 July 2021 for illegal waste activities at two sites.
Three men receive suspended sentences for waste offences
Three men from Armagh have received custodial sentences for the unauthorised management of nearly 7,000 tonnes of waste.
an investigation by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) uncovered significant fraudulent offending regarding the operation of an unlicensed waste business in Armagh.
During an inspection in October 2017, NIEA Officers discovered a large amount of mixed waste in a yard adjacent to the dwelling house. Waste was also stacked in large sheds located on the site. In addition, baled waste was observed in a shed next to the office and numerous pieces of waste processing equipment including material handlers, balers, shredders, skips, ejector trailers and a trommel waste sorting machine were located on the site. Checks revealed that the site had been operating without a waste licence since 2014.
A Proceeds of Crime investigation is ongoing.
Breaches
All three men pleaded guilty to breaching Article 4(1)(b) of the Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997:
- Article 4(1)(b) prohibits persons from treating, keeping or disposing of controlled waste, or knowingly causing or knowingly permit controlled waste to be treated, kept or disposed of in or on any land, or by means of any mobile plant, except under and in accordance with a waste management licence.
One of the men also pleaded guilty to breaching Article 4(1)(a) of the same Act:
- Article 4(1)(a) prohibits persons from depositing controlled waste, or knowingly causing or knowingly permitting controlled waste to be deposited in or on any land without a waste management licence authorising these deposits.
This man also plead guilty to fraud offences under the Fraud Act 2006.
Penalties
Each of the three men received a 25 month custodial sentences suspended for two years.
One man had also entered an earlier guilty plea to a fraud offence for which he received a concurrent custodial sentence of 25 months suspended for 2 years.
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