A waste offender has been sentenced to 250 hours of unpaid community service over 18 months as well as a £2,000 fine after being caught running an illegal waste transfer station and depositing waste on land that belonged to Network Rail. The fine will be given as compensation to Network Rail.
Network Rail originally raised the alarm having found waste deposited at Sittingbourne station in October 2020. CCTV had caught images of the waste being dumped by a Volvo lorry. Those images were subsequently passed on to the Environment Agency alongside other footage of the same vehicle seemingly dumping waste at their Milton Court Road site in London.
Following the complaint, the Environment Agency visited Green Lane Recycling Ltd, whose only director was the offender. They discovered the site in Bermondsey was being used as an illegal waste transfer station - i.e. no environmental permits or exemptions were in place. Furthermore, it was discovered that the vehicle caught on CCTV by Network Rail was involved in a road accident in January 2021 and the driver fled the scene, leaving a high-vis jacket in the vehicle bearing the logo of Green Lane Recycling Ltd. Further investigation found that the vehicle was insured to the same company.
The waste offender was subsequently found to have breached the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations SI 2010/675.
Matt Higginson, environment manager for the Environment Agency in South London and Kent, said: "This was a deliberate breach of the law. This prosecution sends out a strong signal to others that we will continue to fight tirelessly to combat illegal waste crime and bring those responsible to justice".
"Businesses and householders also need to do everything possible to ensure that waste doesn’t end up in the hands of operators who break the law. We encourage anyone seeking waste disposal services to check for registered carriers online at Waste Carriers, Brokers and Dealers".
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