A director was ordered to pay £50,000 in fines, compensation and legal costs, whilst the other faces a five-year ban as a company director, for operating an illegal waste wood operation in Essex.
This judgement followed a five-week trial in October and November 2018 where the Environment Agency prosecuted three directors for storing and treating waste wood in excess of the 500-tonne limit allowed by the waste exemption they had registered. This caused a substantial dust contamination to neighbouring businesses, a fire risk to the local environment, and passing on the costs to the landowner by abandoning the waste.
The three directors of Prime Biomass Ltd had contracted with a Swedish company to supply recycled waste wood, with the basis of the contract being that the waste wood would be supplied to the company site at Dover's Corner Industrial Estate in Essex, treated and then moved to another location before being exported to Sweden.
In January 2013 one of the directors registered a T6 exemption on behalf of the company to allow the company to chip, shred, cut or pulverise waste wood and waste plant matter to make it easier to store and transport, or to convert it into a suitable form to use. The company was allowed to treat or store no more than 500 tonnes of waste wood in any seven day period at their site.
When the Environment Agency officers visited the site in September 2013 the company admitted that the site contained 1,200 tonnes of waste wood in breach of the T6 exemption. An agreement was made that the company would reduce the waste and by October 2013 some efforts had been made to reduce the waste wood pile. However, on two visits in November 2013, the amount of waste had not reduced and on further visits, the waste had increased again.
By February 2014 Prime Biomass Ltd was in liquidation and the directors had abandoned the site leaving the waste wood, which remained there until late 2018 when the site and other surrounding land were sold for redevelopment.
One director was found guilty of causing the company to commit the offence of operating a regulated facility without a permit. He was sentenced to conditional discharge of two years, and imposed a five year director's disqualification order against him.
The other director was also found guilty for his part in the same crime, and sentenced to a fine of £4,000, a compensation order of £30,000 to the victim left with the abandoned wood waste, and ordered to pay a contribution towards the prosecution costs in the sum of 16,000. A third director was acquitted by a majority verdict.
Ruth Shaw, case officer from the Environment Agency, said: "Their actions showed blatant disregard for local residents and businesses, and put the environment and local amenity at risk. Waste crime can undermine legitimate businesses, so we work closely with businesses to help them comply with the law".
"In cases like this where individuals consistently operate illegally, we have no hesitation in prosecuting them as we want to make sure that waste crime doesn’t pay".
